A rare and powerful tornado has devastated sections of Havana, killing four people and injuring 195, as it overturned cars, uprooted trees and destroyed dozens of homes.

A shaken resident, recalling a night of terror, said she clutched her daughter and crouched down in her kitchen as the tornado came roaring in Sunday night.

"It was as if rocks were falling -- it was hail -- and I felt things beginning to fall. It lifted my entire roof and took everything away," said a sobbing Canaima Hernandez, 36.

Hernandez's Havana neighborhood, Regla, was one of the hardest hit by the tornado, which state media said was comparable in strength to the most powerful hurricanes.

Residents picked their way through overturned vehicles, collapsed walls, overturned lampposts and uprooted trees.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who confirmed the latest toll on Monday, toured the city's darkened streets visiting emergency crews, wrote on Twitter that damage was "severe."

- Night of terror -

In the city's Luyano neighborhood, storm debris -- including parts of a balcony ripped off an old building -- blocked the streets.

As emergency sirens blared across the city, firefighters and ambulances rushed about on rescue missions, their flashing lights illuminating blacked out areas.

Diaz-Canel said that several emergency teams were working hard to restore power to those areas.

At the Hijas de Galicia maternity hospital, staff were forced to evacuate the building due to storm damage.

The tornado, spawned by a powerful storm that originated in the Gulf of Mexico, hit western Cuba with winds of up to 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour.

"Islanders are used to these warnings, but they did not suspect the magnitude of what was approaching," said Granma, the Communist Party daily.

People described the tornado as having "the sound of a jet engine," and reported feeling changes in the environmental pressure when it arrived, Armando Caymares with the Institute of Meteorology said.

The tornado "caught me in the street, in the car with my wife and children," actor Luis "Panfilo" Silva wrote on his social media account.

"I had to dodge fallen trees, flooded areas and strong winds until I managed to get home. We experienced great fear," he wrote.

Francisco Sotolongo said it was a good thing the tornado's impact only lasted seconds, "because if it lasted a minute there would be nothing left here."

High winds sent seawater surging over the city's famed Malecon esplanade and several meters into the city.

The western provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa and Mayabeque also were affected by the storm.

Tornado hits Turkish resort city of Antalya
Ankara (AFP) Jan 27, 2019 - A tornado hit the Turkish resort of Antalya, injuring a dozen people, overturning buses and damaging airplanes at the airport with officials warning on Sunday of the risk of more bad weather.

After the tornado battered the area in the south on Saturday, Antalya Governor Munir Karaloglu said 12 people were injured and two buses were blown over at the airport.

Two planes and a police helicopter were also partly damaged, Karaloglu said.

It was the fifth tornado in three days, the governor's office said.

The governorate on Sunday warned the public on Twitter that the risk of another tornado as well as strong winds, flooding and lightning remained in the province's east.

Former Antalya MP and current Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday told reporters that two people were killed after storms and flooding in the east of the province.

Turkish state news agency Anadolu had reported on Thursday that two people had died after a tornado hit Kumluca and Finike districts, while at least 10 others were wounded.

Search and rescue teams on Sunday were looking for a 20-year-old university student who went missing after her car was hit by the tornado as she was on her way to visit her mother and father, Anadolu said.

Environment Minister Murat Kurum said 315 buildings had been damaged in the past two days in the province because of bad weather.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said during a rally in Antalya that the material damage had reached nearly 100 million Turkish lira ($19 million; 16.6 million euros).

Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com

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