At least two people were killed in Havana, Cuba’s capital, after Hurricane Agatha’s remnants brought heavy rain and flooding to the Caribbean island.
The Cuban weather service predicted that the rain would continue until Saturday afternoon, with some areas receiving more than 20cm (8in) of rain.
The western and central parts of the country, including Havana, have been hit the hardest.
Last Monday, Hurricane Agatha hit Mexico, killing nine people.
Nearly 2,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Havana, and approximately 50,000 people in and around the city are without power.
Evacuation centres have been set up to shelter people from the rain, according to the state-run Cuban News Agency.
The storm is a remnant of Hurricane Agatha, which killed nine people on Mexico’s west coast last week. It was the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the United States during the month of May.
The weather system has now moved north-east towards the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to become the season’s first named tropical storm. It is expected to bring heavy rain to Florida in the United States.
Hurricanes are nothing new to Cuba, but climate change has increased the intensity and frequency of the powerful storms.
In 2019, amendments to the Cuban constitution were made that commit the government to confronting climate change, recognising it as a threat to human survival.
