Cuba Prepares for Hurricane Melissa

Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández reports from Santiago de Cuba, where Hurricane Melissa is expected to make landfall early Wednesday morning. The weather is shifting fast, and residents are racing to prepare before the storm hits.

TRANSCRIPT

“This is Santiago de Cuba, the second biggest city in the country, on the eastern side of the island,” said Liz Oliva, journalist with Belly of the Beast. “Santiago will soon be hit by Hurricane Melissa early Wednesday morning.

The weather is already changing. You can see people moving around, trying to have everything ready before the hurricane touches land.

Cuba has decades of experience facing hurricanes — and its Civil Defense system is among the best in the world. But because of Hurricane Melissa’s size, the damage people are bracing for could be massive.

All this comes at a time when Cuba is already in a deep economic crisis — made even worse by U.S. sanctions.

Stay tuned with Belly of the Beast and BreakThrough News for updates on the impact of Hurricane Melissa in eastern Cuba.” concluded Oliva.