The hurricane made landfall on the island on Wednesday as a powerful Category 3 storm, bringing heavy wind and rain.
NASA's Earth Observatory has released a satellite image of Hurricane Rafael tearing across Cuba after making landfall on the island, bringing heavy wind and rain.The false-color image, captured by the VIIRS sensor on the NOAA-21 satellite, shows the storm churning over parts of the west of the island and the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday at about 1:45 a.m. ET on Thursday. At this time, Rafael was classified as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of roughly 105 miles per hour.
Prior to making landfall in Cuba, Rafael's sustained winds peaked at around 115 miles per hour, but the storm weakened slightly upon encountering land. It was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane as it moved across the island and headed northwest.Rafael knocked out power across Cuba, destroyed hundreds of homes and caused damage to other infrastructure, the Associated Press said. No fatalities were immediately reported.
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