Hurricane Rafael swirls over Gulf of Mexico after ripping through Cuba

HAVANA —  Hurricane Rafael swirled Friday through the Gulf of Mexico, where it was expected to break apart after plowing through Cuba, knocking out the country’s power grid and collapsing hundreds of houses.

On Friday afternoon, the Category 2 hurricane was 230 miles north-northeast of Progreso, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and was moving northwest at 9 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It was forecast to move westward toward Mexico in the coming days, and forecasters warned that swells from the hurricane were likely to cause “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

However, no hurricane warnings were in place, and the storm was expected to weaken and “meander” over the center of the gulf through early next week, forecasters said.

The hurricane tore through Jamaica and the Cayman Islands earlier in the week, knocking out power and fueling mudslides. On Wednesday evening, it barreled into Cuba, causing yet another headache for the island.

Rafael’s fierce winds knocked out Cuba’s electric grid, forced the evacuation of 283,000 people and collapsed 461 homes. It also left trees, power lines and rubble strewn across flooded streets.

On Friday, the Cuban government said it was able to restore electricity to approximately 143,000 homes in Havana, though many people were still without power.

Rafael followed a rocky few weeks in the Caribbean nation. First, it was hit by island-wide blackouts stretching for days, a product of the island’s energy crisis. Shortly afterward, it was slapped by a powerful hurricane that struck the eastern part of the island and killed at least six people.