Alberto Hits Cuba’s Pinar del Rio Tobacco Province

Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the 2006 hurricane season, has brought heavy rains to Cuba’s tobacco-growing western province of Pinar del Rio.

Initial reports are that the weather had not severely affected the tobacco crop because the harvest has been completed. The leaves used to make the island’s famed cigars are already inside curing houses and need only be protected from excess humidity or storm damage to the buildings.

More than 25,400 people have been evacuated from the Pinar del Río Province due to the passage of the storm. Alberto, which formed during the morning of June 11 in the southeast part of the Gulf of Mexico, was moving away from Cuba’s coasts.

However, the Defense Council in Pinar del Rio has instructed that all precautionary measures be taken to protect human lives and economic assets, and warned that the danger was not yet over. The possibility of increased flooding in low-lying areas near reservoirs continues according to reports from the area.

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