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It's now a tropical storm on landfall on Sunday evening, Oct. 20 in eastern Cuba, where heavy rain will continue causing life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides on Monday, Oct. 21, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Oscar formed rapidly over the weekend, After being upgraded to a tropical storm Saturday morning, Oct. 19, it strengthened to hurricane status just hours later.
As it tracks north, Oscar will bring gusty winds and heavy rain to the southeastern Bahamas Monday night, and Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Cuba had been experienced widespread blackouts for several days prior to Oscar's arrival due to issues with its electricity grid not related to weather.
"Such hurricane impacts to Cuba is extremely concerning because of the ongoing power grid crisis in Cuba," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said. "Adding a hurricane hit on top of the existing power failure can make the hurricane impact far worse than what would occur in another hurricane impacting Cuba, further risking lives and resulting in challenges in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the hurricane’s impacts."
Patty and Rafael are next on the list of tropical storm names for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through Saturday, Nov. 30.
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