Havana: rare tornado rips through Cuban capital

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/28/havana-rare-tornado-rips-through-cuban-capital

A tornado and pounding rain have smashed into the east of Cuba’s capital, toppling trees, bending power poles and throwing shards of metal roofing through the air as the storm cut across eastern Havana.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on Monday at least three people were killed and 172 injured, as power was cut to many areas.

Julio Menendez, 33, a restaurant worker, said Havana’s 10 de Octubre district looked “like a horror movie”. “From one moment to the next, we heard a noise like an airplane falling out of the sky. The first thing I did was go hug my daughters.”

The windows in the seven-storey Daughters of Galicia hospital were sucked out of their frames by the wind, leaving curtains flapping in the breeze. All the patients, including new and expectant mothers, had to be evacuated. In the streets, a 9-metre-tall palm tree had crushed a pre-revolutionary American car.