Cuba was battered by a fierce Category 3 hurricane on Thursday which knocked out the country’s power grid.
The magnitude of the impact remained unclear through the early hours of the day, but forecasters warned that Hurricane Rafael could bring "life-threatening" storm surges, winds and flash floods.
State-run TV reported the entire population of 10 million people was without power.
Rafael had already ravaged parts of the Cayman Islands and Jamaica.
On Wednesday evening, massive waves lashed at Havana's shores as sharp winds and rain left trees littered on flooded roads. Much of the city was dark and deserted.
As it ploughed across Cuba, the storm slowed to a Category 2 hurricane chugging into the Gulf of Mexico near northern Mexico and southern Texas, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami.
Many Cubans were already picking up the pieces of blackouts last month which stretched on for days, as part of the island’s energy crisis, and another powerful hurricane that killed at least six people in eastern Cuba.
It has stoked discontent already simmering in Cuba amid an ongoing economic crisis.
The US State Department issued a travel warning for Cuba over the storm while the Cuban government also asked citizens to hunker down.
Classes and public transport were suspended on parts of the island and authorities cancelled flights in and out of Havana and Varadero.
Thousands of people in the west of the island were evacuated as a preventative measure.
The concern came after the storm knocked out power in the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, where it also unleashed flooding and landslides.
Rafael is the 17th named storm of the season.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season was likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms.
The forecast predicted as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
