The eastern provinces of Cuba that were harshly impacted by the recent Hurricane Melissaare taking steps to repair the damage left by the scourge of the devastating meteor in telecommunications, electricity and water service, according to state media.
In Santiago de Cuba – one of the areas most affected by the meteorological phenomenon – of the 43,400 damaged fixed telephone services, 6.09% had been restored as of Tuesday, according to the director of the state Telecommunications company in that territory, Ricardo Serrano.
The official explained that there is severe damage in several sections of the optical fiber, mainly in those that link the Santiago municipalities of Guamá – where Melissa made landfall –, Segundo Frente and Tercer Frente.
In the also southeastern Granma, preliminary data from ETECSA indicated that the meteor caused 18 cuts in fiber optic cables, and as of Monday, 74% of the damaged fixed services and 51% of the radio bases had been restored.
In Las Tunas, for its part, 95% of fixed telephony and 90% of radio bases (antennas) had been recovered, while in its neighbor Holguín 22% of fixed services and 60% of radio base sites had been reactivated.
According to the report from the day before, in Guantánamo the recovery was 28% of the fixed services and 53% of the radio bases.
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Electricity, transportation, housing
The electricity supply was also damaged by the impact of the powerful hurricane that crossed the eastern end of the island for seven hours from south to north last Wednesday as a category 3 (out of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, said the day before that in the province of Las Tunas the service has been restored to 94.5% of customers, but in Holguín it barely reaches 40.5%, in Granma it is 50.4%, in Guantánamo, 58.7% and in Santiago de Cuba he did not give data.
As for public transport, as of this Tuesday, National Bus services resumed at their usual frequencies.
Preliminary reports from the Government on the damage to housing cited 45,282 damaged properties, more than 10,000 of them in Guantánamo.
Melissa damaged more than 45 thousand houses and 1,500 schools in eastern Cuba
Evacuees
The number of people evacuated and protected in state shelters and homes of neighbors or relatives initially exceeded 750,000, and currently some 120,000 people still remain displaced.
The intense flooding of the Cauto River – the largest in Cuba – caused floods that added more evacuees in Granma, and according to the Cuban Presidency, of a total of 20,570 residents of its Cauto Cristo municipality, 14,432 were evacuated.
This Wednesday marks one week since Melissa crossed the eastern region of the island with category 3 (out of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale accompanied by strong winds, heavy rains and a severe storm surge.
Its devastating blow caused overflowing rivers, landslides, localities cut off by intense floods, and multiple damage even without a complete assessment by the authorities.
