Hurricane Ida began to pound western Cuba on Friday, forcing the evacuation of more than 2,400 people and causing power outages in the southern Isle of Youth as the storm gained intensity and speed, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
A total of 2,461 people were reported to have evacuated to the houses of relatives or neighbors after Ida strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane on the one-to-five Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity.
With winds of 120 km per hour, Ida became the first hurricane to make landfall in Cuba this hurricane season, entering the area of Punta del Este, on the southeasternmost tip of the Isle of Youth.
Moving in a northwesterly direction at about 24 km per hour, Ida was about 10 km from the center of the island and 245 km east of the western tip of the province of Pinar del Rio.