SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The number of deaths from the passage of hurricane – later tropical storm – Oscar through the province of Guantanamorose to eight, according to official data revealed this Wednesday in a note from the National Civil Defense General Staff.
According to the communication transmitted in the official Caribbean Channeleight people died and two children were injured. Two other Cubans remain missing according to the regime’s data.
The deceased They were identified as Francisco Colombia Matos, 92 years old; Esmeraldo Noah Fiffe, 82; Antolino Arias Domínguez, 84; Alexander Saben Matos, 42; Iriannis Labañino Domínguez, 31, and Liz Anyi Elíaz Labañino, 5; María Martha Osorio Matos, 81 years old; all of them from San Antonio del Sur, and Ramón Díaz Matos, 86, from the municipality of Imías.
In addition, they stated that Kaliannis Hernández Urgellés, 35, and Orlenis Gamboa Pérez, 42, both from San Antonio del Sur, have not been able to be located.
On the other hand, the Guantanamo visual artist Daniel Ross Dieguez, who has undertaken solidarity work to help those affected, indicated on Tuesday in his Facebook page that in San Antonio del Sur they found two bodies that would raise the death toll even further.
“They told us that someone found the second body on the San Antonio ball field, an hour ago, also in the mud, just two days after the other one that appeared in another part of the town. The search for two missing people continues in Macambo,” he wrote.
So far, the information from the Cuban authorities does not specify whether the new victim identified corresponds to one of the bodies found in San Antonio.
Although the authorities did not specify the causes of the deaths, the images that emerged on social networks suggest that the victims They could have died from drowning due to intense flooding in the region.
After the onslaught of Oscar’s hurricane winds, in addition, Yodelmis Furones Matossix years old, resident in Baracoahad to be transferred urgently, by air, to the “Octavio de la Concepción y la Pedraja” General Teaching Hospital in that territory and later to the South Pediatric Hospital, in Santiago de Cubaafter being seriously injured.
Abraham Daniel González Hernández, 12 years old, from the municipality of San Antonio del Sur, was swept away by the waters and suffered an injury to his leg. Both children are recovering favorably in hospitals.
A Cuban who rescued almost 50 people described that the water reached the height of the roof of many houses and the moment was desperate.
Although the meteorological event barely reached category one on the Saffir-Simpson scale, it was one of the most devastating in recent years.
“From 2:00 AM the water was rising and reached knee-deep and what we did was climb the things a meter high, but around 4 o’clock the big flood occurred. “This was a complete river,” he said.
Oscar was formed quickly and arrived in Eastern Cuba in the midst of a massive collapse of the national electrical system. Cubans had been without electricity for dozens of hours and many were unaware of the impact of the hurricane.