HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) — Ten people were killed in Cuba by Hurricane Irma, according to the country’s authorities, who have begun to assess the full extent of the damage in the aftermath of the devastating storm.
Seven of the dead were from the capital Havana, while fatalities were also reported in Matanzas, and in the regions of Ciego de Avila and Camaguey farther east.
Most of deaths were either caused by collapsing buildings or electric shocks, authorities said.
Irma, which packed winds of more than 260 kilometers per hour by the time it made landfall in Cuba late on Friday, swept across some 320 kilometers along the island’s northern shore before the eye of the storm turned northwards on Sunday afternoon towards the U.S. state of Florida.
The storm toppled trees, electricity poles and blew off roofs, causing massive flooding in many coastal towns and leaving millions without electricity.
Many streets in central Havana are still being inundated by waist-high floodwater as of Sunday morning.
As of Monday, 80 percent of the country remained without power. In some affected regions, it may take up to 20 days or more for electricity supplies to be fully restored.
Authorities said Irma has dealt a heavy blow to the local agriculture and tourism, with the full scale of the damage still being tallied.
