The Latest: Cook: Havana tornado absolutely “frightening”

The Latest on Cuba’s deadly weather (all times local):

8 a.m.

Leanys Calvo, a restaurant cook in Havana’s 10th of October borough, says she was working Sunday night despite heavy rain and wind when she heard a rumbling noise outside and looked out to see what appeared to be a tornado touching down.

The 38-year-old says early Monday that “it was something that touched down, and then took off again. It was like a tower.” She says it was red and green, adding “it was here for 2-3 seconds, nothing more. They were the most frightening seconds of my life.”

Police officers on the scene early Monday said 73 people were injured and hospitalized in the 10th of October section but no one had died. They declined to give their names because they were not authorized.

Cuba’s president says the tornado has killed three people and injured 174 others.

___

7:45 a.m.

A reported tornado has left a trail of destruction across the Cuban capital of Havana.

Power poles in the city’s 10th of October borough have been knocked over or were leaning precariously early Monday, held up only by their electrical lines. A palm tree more than 30 feet (9 meters) tall had crushed a pre-revolutionary American car.

The tornado ripped metal sheeting off many roofs and hurled the deadly shards through the air. The streets are littered with bricks fallen from housing facades. The windows in one seven-story hospital had been sucked out of their frames by the wind and all the patients, new and expectant mothers, had to be evacuated.

Havana was battered late Sunday and early Monday by powerful winds and heavy rains. Cuba’s president says the tornado killed three people and injured 174 others.

___

7:35 a.m.

Julio Menendez, a 33-year-old restaurant worker, says Havana’s 10th of October borough “looks like a horror movie” after what appeared to be a deadly tornado swept through.

Menendez, who was home Sunday night when the tornado hit, says “from one moment to the next, we heard a noise like an airplane falling out of the sky. The first thing I did was go hug my daughters” — who are nine and 12.

The Cuban capital was battered late Sunday and early Monday by powerful winds and heavy rains that downed many power lines. Cuba’s president says the tornado killed three people and injured 174 others.

Menendez spoke Monday near the Daughters of Galicia Hospital, whose patients, all expectant mothers or mothers with newborns, were evacuated to another hospital. Many glass windows in the seven-story hospital had been sucked out of their frames by the power of the wind, leaving curtains flapping in the breeze.

___

5:50 a.m.

Cuba’s president says a tornado in eastern Havana has killed three people and injured 174 others.

The Cuban capital was battered late Sunday and early Monday by powerful winds and heavy rains. A blackout hit many Havana neighborhoods around 9 p.m.

Early Monday, President Miguel Diaz-Canel posted photos of himself on Twitter with rescue workers besides what appeared to be a vehicle overturned by the storm. Little further information about the storm appeared in state media.

Photos posted by Cuban media and Havana residents on Twitter showed cars crushed by fallen light posts and cars trapped in floodwaters around the city. One local radio station said on Twitter that the Regla and 10th of October sections of Havana and the town of San Miguel de Padron had been affected by the tornado.