A person fishes along the boardwalk as waves break during a power outage in Havana, Monday, October 21, 2024.

Ramón Espinosa/AP

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Ramón Espinosa/AP

HAVANA – Tropical Storm Oscar headed toward the Bahamas late Monday after dumping heavy rain on eastern Cuba.

Maximum sustained winds were blowing at 65 km/h late Monday, with Oscar moving north-northeast at 13 km/h. The storm was centered about 105 miles (170 kilometers) south of Long Island, Bahamas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the central and southeastern Bahamas.

According to hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry, Oscar is the smallest hurricane ever measured, with a wind field of only about 10 kilometers in diameter.

He noted that no forecast models indicated that Oscar could become a hurricane on Saturday before making landfall in the Bahamas. “It is not often that we see a colossal failure in hurricane forecasts,” he wrote in an analysis published Monday.

Oscar was a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) when it made landfall Sunday evening in the eastern Cuban province of Guantanamo, near the city of Baracoa.

Floods were reported in low-lying areas, causing at least six deaths. The Cubans were already suffering from a major power outage that has knocked out power and water on the entire island since last week.

Oscar made landfall earlier Saturday on Great Inagua in the Bahamas, where residents were evacuated after their homes were damaged.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Kristy formed off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast on Monday. The storm was located 500 kilometers southwest of Acapulco and was moving west at a speed of 26 kilometers per hour. It had packed winds of 28 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Kristy was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane on Wednesday but continue to move over open water without threatening land.