What we’re reading: Power outages in Cuba, deadly flooding in New Mexico and more

By Analise Wachtel, Staff Writer

Published Oct 21, 2024

Residents protest by banging pots and pans in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Cubans face prolonged power outage amid new tropical storm threat

Cuba’s blackouts go into their fourth day as Hurricane Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast with heavy rain and winds, according to AP News. According to AP News, in Santa Suárez, a neighborhood in Havana, protesters banged pots and pans to protest their four days without electricity and water. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Oscar made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in the eastern Cuban province of Guantanamo on Sunday evening. It had weakened to a tropical storm by late Sunday night. AP News reports Oscar’s effects are forecast to linger through Monday. Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a news conference he hopes the electricity grid will be restored on Monday or Tuesday morning.

Hundreds rescued from New Mexico flash floods

Record rainfall produced severe flooding in and around Roswell and Chavez County, according to CBS. The National Weather Service in Albuquerque said 5.78 inches of rain fell in Roswell on Saturday. According to CBS, meteorologists said more flash floods were possible. The record flooding left at least two people dead and Guard officials said 309 people had been rescued since Saturday, 38 of which were taken to hospitals to treat injuries, according to CBS.

More video coming in of the catastrophic flooding in Roswell. New Mexico State Police now confirming two people have died due to the flooding. Video courtesy of Joseph Baeza. #NMwx pic.twitter.com/SopIDYcUMO

— Grant Tosterud (@granttosterudwx) October 21, 2024

New Mexico State Police did not release further information on the victims or circumstances of their deaths. All roads leading to and from the city were closed on Sunday, including several road closures along U.S. Highway 285, said the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

4 dead in helicopter crash in Houston

Four people are dead, including a child, after a helicopter crash in Houston, Texas on

This image provided by the Houston Fire Department shows the scene of a helicopter crash in the city’s Second Ward, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Houston Fire Department via AP) (Houston Fire Department)

Sunday evening, according to BBC. The Houston fire department said the helicopter crashed into a radio tower in the city’s east side. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had earlier issued a notification saying the tower’s lights were inoperable on Oct. 16, according to local broadcaster KHOU-TV. The crash caused a fire to spread over an estimated three blocks, according to Fire Department Chief Thomas Munoz. It did not spread into residential areas. BBC reports the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident.

Israel targets banks in Lebanon to disrupt Hezbollah’s finances

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Beirut’s southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (AP)

The Israeli Defense Force hit a string of bank branches across Lebanon overnight to target Hezbollah’s finances, according to NBC. Hundreds of residents of Lebanon’s capital and surrounding areas were forced to flee their homes Sunday night after the IDF issued evacuation orders. NBC reports Daniel Hagar, IDF spokesman, warned the evacuation orders were ahead of strikes targeting buildings he said were being “used to finance Hezbollah’s terror activities.” Throughout the night, a series of airstrikes targeted branches of the Al-Qard Al-Hassan bank. The U.S. and Israel have linked the bank to Hezbollah. In a post on X, United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis described “widespread panic after new evacuation orders.” She said there was a “brief window to escape to safety” prior to the strikes. This strike comes weeks after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III reaffirmed that a diplomatic resolution is required to “ensure that civilians can return safely to their homes on both sides of the border,” according to a readout of a conversation with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.