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HAVANA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Raul Castro has supervised the measures taken in the eastern part of the country to face the major hurricane Matthew, expected to hit Cuba on Tuesday afternoon.
During a tour to the provinces of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba, the Cuban leader urged relevant departments to be prepared for the hurricane, and seize even the smallest detail of previous experiences in order to preserve human lives and material resources.
In the Guantanamo territory, authorities have evacuated some 179,000 people from areas prone to be hit by landslides and floods.
On Saturday, Castro established the National Civil Defense headquartered in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and has assumed the presidency.
Given the strength of the weather event, category four on the five-degree Saffir-Simpson scale, the rest of Cuban provinces are ready to lend support to the affected areas.
A railway operation is ready in Havana for bringing in the possible shortest time the resources needed for the recovery of infrastructure and energy networks.
At 6 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Monday, the center of Matthew was estimated at about 415 km southeast Santiago de Cuba, and 390 km south of Guantanamo.
Matthew comes with maximum sustained winds of 220 km per hour, with higher gusts.
In the next hours the hurricane is expected to continue its route in north direction, with an increasing speed of 11 km per hour.
