Dozens injured as severe weather batters Cuba

Dozens injured as severe weather batters Cuba
A series of waterspouts move onshore, injuring at least 38 people and
causing significant damage to houses.

A clear-up operation is under way in Cuba after a series of powerful
waterspouts slammed into the country's south coast, injuring dozens of
people and destroying several homes.

Waterspouts are tornadoes which move over water. They are often weak and
fairly harmless, but sometimes they can be powerful and cause
significant damage if they come onshore.

Witnesses in Playa Caimito, on the island's south, filmed the
waterspouts as they formed off shore, with some people reporting seeing
as many as seven churning columns of air.

The waterspouts then slammed on to the coast, hitting Playa Caimito
where they destroyed 14 homes and damaged six more.

As the storm raged, 38 people were injured, six of them seriously.

Resident Madelin Barban told the Reuters news agency that she had a
narrow escape.

"My children and I were inside my home and thank God, my neighbour put
my children under the bed. I was in the living room, with all the rubble
on top of me. It was horrible."

Powerful thunderstorms are common in Cuba at this time of year. The day
after the storms battered Playa Caimito, Cuba's capital Havana was also
hit by damaging winds that were gusting up to 87 kilometres per hour.

Most storms hit the island during the rainy season, which runs from May
to October. It is rare, however, for so many waterspouts to be reported
at one time.

Source: Dozens injured as severe weather batters Cuba - News from Al
Jazeera -
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/dozens-injured-severe-weather-batters-cuba-160705091439641.html