Paloma weakens to a tropical storm after battering Cuba
By Ivan Oransky
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Hurricane Paloma struck Cuba as a powerful Category 4 hurricane early this morning, bringing coastal floods and knocking over a communications tower, the CBC reports. It began weakening as soon as it moved over land, however, and by 10 a.m. Eastern Time, was downgraded to a tropical storm by the National Hurricane Center.
At that time, the storm was centered near Camaguey, Cuba, and its maximum sustained winds were 60 mph (95 km/hr).
Cuba's government had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people in the storm's path, and so far no deaths or injuries have been reported.
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Paloma is expected to continue weakening until it is a weak area of low pressure by Monday.
For more on hurricanes, see our in-depth report.
Satellite image of Paloma over Cuba courtesy NOAA
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