New Delhi, Jan 11: India on Friday sent humanitarian assistance to Cuba following the devastation caused by Hurricane Rafael. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that a consignment of essential medicines, including antibiotics, and painkillers has been dispatched to aid the people of Cuba in their recovery efforts.Sharing a post on X, the MEA spokesperson wrote, “Vishwabandhu Bharat: India sends Humanitarian Assistance for the people of Cuba.” “In the aftermath of Hurricane Rafael, a consignment in the form of Essential Medicines comprising Antibiotics, Anti-pyretics, pain killers, ORS, muscle relaxants has departed for Cuba today,” the post added.
Notably, Hurricane Rafael made landfall in the western Cuban province of Artemisa as a Category 3 storm on the afternoon of November 6, 2024.
The hurricane approached the island from the south, having skirted past Jamaica on November 5 as a tropical storm, according to NASA Earth Observatory.
Approaching Cuba, it traversed warm waters and encountered light to moderate vertical wind shear–environmental conditions that helped the storm to strengthen into a major hurricane. Rafael’s sustained wind speeds peaked at 185 kilometres per hour prior to landfall, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) had reported.
It weakened slightly upon encountering land, downgrading to a Category 2 storm as it moved across Cuba and tracked northwest into the Gulf of Mexico. Citing news reports, the NASA Earth Observatory said that the Cuban government announced the hurricane had knocked out power across the entire island before landfall.
Several airports had suspended flights. Western Cuba was expected to receive 100 to 200 millimetres of rainfall from the storm system, according to the NHC, with several inches also forecast for the Cayman Islands and Florida Keys.
The NHC had also warned of strong storm surge that could raise water as much as four metres above normal levels along Cuba’s southern coast.