Rafael, third tropical storm with similar name in Cuba

 HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 5 (ACN) The presence of tropical storm Rafael constitutes a potential danger for western Cuba, declared in a state of alert due to the fact that it is gaining in organization and intensity in the central Caribbean Sea.

If it were to unfortunately hit us with hurricane intensity, it would become the third hurricane of that name in our history, said Professor Luis Enrique Ramos Guadalupe, Coordinator of the History Commission of the Cuban Meteorological Society, in an evaluation of the current position and future trajectory of this organism.

The first one corresponded to the San Rafael Storm, which on October 24, 1692 hit Havana and other regions of the western region hard, he recalled in one of his usual reports, sent to the Cuban News Agency, which are extremely useful for the knowledge of the background of tropical cyclones.

Ramos Guadalupe recalled that the descriptions refer to a storm of great violence that, among other damages, destroyed the first church of Nuestra Señora de Regla.

However, he continued, a little more than a century later, on the same date in 1796, the Cuban capital and its surroundings were hit by the shocks of the Second Storm of San Rafael, which left five ships sunk and an undetermined number of people missing.

Based on the above, let's hope that Rafael does not replicate in 2024 the enormous destruction that centuries ago left in Cuba the two storms that bore his name, said the eminent national historian.