A government meteorologist says the tornado that struck Havana was a Category F3, with winds between 155 and 199 miles per hour.
Miguel Angel Hernandez of the Cuban Center for Meteorology says tornadoes are unusual around the capital and a strong one hadn't hit the city in decades. He says Sunday night's storm was produced when a cold front hit Cuba's northern coast, similar to one that struck in 1993, although without producing a tornado.
Earlier, Cuba's president said the tornado killed three people and injured 174 others.
Power poles in the city's 10th of October borough have been knocked over or were leaning precariously early Monday, held up only by their electrical lines. A palm tree more than 30 feet (9 meters) tall had crushed a pre-revolutionary American car.
The tornado ripped metal sheeting off many roofs and hurled the deadly shards through the air. The streets are littered with bricks fallen from housing facades. The windows in one seven-story hospital had been sucked out of their frames by the wind and all the patients, new and expectant mothers, had to be evacuated.
Havana was battered late Sunday and early Monday by powerful winds and heavy rains.Â
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