The National Civil Defense General Staff decreed the Information Phase for the provinces Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey starting at 2:00 p.m. today as Tropical Storm Melissa approaches
“The population is directed to stay informed through the national media and official social media profiles and to disciplinedly comply with the instructions given by local authorities and Civil Defense,” the note points out.
#Cuba
‼️ATTENTION‼️
INFORMATION NOTE NO 1https://t.co/TiIY30E94G—Cuba Civil Defense (@CubaCivil) October 24, 2025
The Civil Defense and the Institutes of Meteorology and National Hydraulic Resources maintain surveillance over this tropical storm, which is expected to be a hurricane tomorrow and for which all forecasts indicate that it will impact Cuban territory next week, with category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Measurements in the east
The territorial authorities had begun to reinforce prevention actions against the risk of heavy rains and winds, as well as floods.
According to the newspaper Granmathe Temporary Working Group of Santiago had indicated urgent measures, including the cleaning of streams, river beds and vulnerable areasas well as the protection of people and economic resources.
The state of the dams was also monitored, whose filling capacity in the territory currently exceeds 75%, with more than 529 million cubic meters of accumulated water.
The same was done in Guantánamo, where in addition to the more than 200 homes affected last August by a severe local storm, 24 homes were also affected by the intense rains of recent weeks.
In Granma, the centers planned for evacuations of vulnerable families were preparing their conditions while agriculture worked to secure machinery, pumping equipment and animals in the face of the possibility of flooding in low areas, according to Radio Bayamo.
Hurricane in hours of extreme severity
The Cuban Civil Defense had issued a first early warning, urging local authorities to maintain “strict surveillance” over the phenomenon and to guarantee constant communication with the population about the evolution of the system and the measures adopted.
Melissa will impact eastern Cuba next week as a powerful hurricane, according to forecasts
The forecasts regarding Melissa’s path have generated concern among the inhabitants of Santiago de Cuba, one of the most vulnerable provinces in the east of the country, which still remembers the devastating effects of previous hurricanes such as Sandy and Matthew.
Melissa, already transformed into a powerful hurricane, will arrive in a particularly delicate context for Cubans, marked by the economic crisis, power outages and diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and oropouche. Added to this is the period of intense rains that has considerably raised the level of the reservoirs.
