Tropical storm Andrea, the first storm of the hurricane season in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, on Thursday threatened western Cuba's province of Pinar del Rio, where authorities have declared flood warnings, with heavy rains.

The Forecast Center at Cuba's National Institute of Meteorology (Insmet) said a low-pressure zone, which has been over the Gulf of Mexico for several days, intensified into a tropical storm Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour.

According to weather data from Thursday morning, Andrea is moving north-northeast at 20 kilometers per hour and is expected to make landfall in the southern U.S. state of Florida in the next few hours.

Forecasts also said heavy rains will continue over the next 48 hours in Pinar del Rio, where flooding has isolated small towns.

In San Juan y Martinez and the capital city of Pinar del Rio, more than 20 centimeters of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours.

Cuba's Civil Defense (DC) issued flood warnings Wednesday for Pinar del Rio province, where more than 1,000 people have been evacuated, and a state of "alert" for the western provinces of Artemisa, Mayabeque and Havana. Endi

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