Cuban authorities reported this Saturday that they have so far evacuated some 3,800 people from several towns in the Granma province due to flooding due to the flooding of the Cauto River, due to the rains of Hurricane Melissa.
“Around midnight, the second operation was completed to transport the second group of residents of the Granma community of Guamo by rail, to be evacuated in the territory of Las Tunas, this time in Colombia and Las Tunas,” noted a post from the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) on Facebook.
The group was made up of around 1,500 people, according to the information, which highlights that they arrived to Jobabo by train and were transferred by bus to Colombia and the provincial capital with “the purpose of reducing the use of the railway and making other trips from Guamo, bringing the rest of the residents.”
Already at dawn, more than 2,300 people had arrived in Jobabo, most of them staying at the Polytechnic Manifesto of Montecristi, a center that exceeded its capacity “more than three times.”
Problems in the transfer
The Minint note clarifies that “contrary to news that spread on the networks of a train derailment during this second transfer operation, what happened was a technical failure caused by the humidity of the terrain, having to leave four of the cars, and come practically at half capacity.”
Due to this fact, after midnight they sent “the train and three motor cars again for a third rescue. However, it could not be done completely due to the height of the waters that prevented the residents from reaching the train. They explain that they were only able to bring about 80 people on this third trip.”
“To complete the rescue and be able to bring the residents remaining in Guamo, a team of rescuers are going there by train right now, arriving with boats and the necessary resources to leave the train in a safe place and search for the people by boat without endangering their lives,” the post noted this Saturday.
Rescue efforts began the previous day and up to 7,000 people are expected to be taken “urgently” to the nearby community of Jobabo in the adjacent province of Las Tunas.
The situation of greatest concern is around the final stretch of the Cauto River, the longest in Cuba, and its largest dam, given the risk of the infrastructure overflowing.
Extreme risk
The chief of staff of the Eastern Army, Brigadier General Florencio Navas, explained that the town of Río Cauto is surrounded by floods and that a part of the railway track where some 800 people had previously been evacuated was under water, according to the official newspaper. Granma.
The authorities, cited by EFEwarned that the situation is “extreme risk” and will remain that way for the next few hours because the moment of greatest danger – of maximum height of the waters – does not occur until 72 hours after it stops raining at the head of the river.
In fact, the two municipalities of Granma affected by these floods (Río Cauto and Cauto Cristo) are the only ones that remain in an “alarm” situation after the Civil Defense – the highest disaster management body – moved the rest of the east to the “recovery phase.”
Melissa made landfall in Cuba at dawn last Wednesday in the southeast of the country and left seven hours later in the northeast, accompanied by winds of up to 200 kilometers per hour and rains that left up to 400 millimeters (or liters per square meter) in some points.
