MADRID, Spain.- The intense rains that have hit the eastern region of Cuba —from Camagüey to Santiago de Cuba— in the last days They left a balance of six people dead: two in Granma, two in Camagüey, one in Las Tunas and one in Santiago de Cuba. These facts were confirmed by cubadebatewhen reviewing a meeting of the Cuban authorities that focused on analyzing the damage caused by the rains and offered little information about the victims.
Until now, only the names of those who died in Camagüey have come out. According to the local media Agramonte Chain, it was José Vásquez Olivar, 56 years old, resident of the municipality of Minas, who was found drowned in the Máximo dam; and Ramón Varona Leyva, 67 years old, belonging to the town of Haiti, in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Sur.
As regards material damage, at the government meeting it was specified that 105 communities were isolated in the province of Granma, 14 of them due to landslides and 91 due to river flooding. The territories with the greatest damage were Yara, Jiguaní, Manzanillo, Media Luna and Niquero. In Camagüey, 550 houses with damages were reported, between total and partial.
Likewise, the managers pointed out that the heavy rains increased the level of deterioration of the land roads, affecting 89 kilometers of roads of national interest and 71 km of roads and paths belonging to other patronages. On the railways, significant damages were reported on the Bayamo-Santiago de Cuba line, the Bayamo-Las Tunas line, the Manzanillo branch, the Grito de Yara branch and the Sofía subbranch.
Regarding the water supply, 125 communities have been affected, with a population of 84,879 people. While 1,679 customers remain without electricity service. Other areas with great impact were agriculture, preliminarily 4,795 hectares of various crops are affected.
According to official information, the floods reached levels that had not been recorded in the last 30 years.
