Havana reports the greatest damage due to the intense rains associated with the wide area of low pressure in the southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and that affects western and central Cuba. The authorities of the capital describe the conditions in which the city is left as “complex” when pointing out two deaths, 111 landslides, two of them total, more than 4,500 evacuated and 23 flooded areas.
In addition to “the intense rains, the floods”, they justified the damage by “the age of the city”, according to the account of the Cuban Presidency in Twitter with a source at a meeting at the National Civil Defense General Staff.
The flooding of the Almendares river, the main river in Havana, has forced the evacuation of almost fifty people in the communities of El Fanguito and La Polar, neighborhoods where most of the houses are made of wood and other light materials. The waters rose rapidly and when they receded they left a thick layer of mud and garbage, according to reports. Tribune of Havana .
The president of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power of Plaza de la Revolución, Osmani Arcia Peñate, reported that 48 people, including six minors and two infants, were evacuated this Friday to the nearby Pioneer Palace. The Vicente Ponce Carrasco Secondary School was also enabled to accommodate another 300.
The provincial authorities also indicate that 11 communities remain incommunicado, so they ask the population to “maintain discipline” and not cross swollen rivers.
In Pinar del Río, where the rains have caused flooding in several localities, the disappearance of citizen Yusiniel Cabeza La Rosa was reported since yesterday afternoon. According to the state broadcaster Radio Guamathe 21-year-old, a resident of the Ojo de Agua farm belonging to the Santa Lucía popular council in the north of the municipality of Minas de Matahambre, was dragged by the strong currents of a river that he tried to swim across.
“From that moment, combined forces of the Ministry of the Interior together with residents of the surrounding communities carry out search tasks,” reported the Municipal Civil Defense, which added that “the dumping of the Nombre Dios dam makes the search tasks difficult.”
The provincial authorities also indicate that 11 communities remain incommunicado, so they ask the population to “maintain discipline” and not cross swollen rivers to “avoid the loss of human life.” In the afternoon of this Friday, the body of Yosvel Cabrera Álvarez, 44, who fell into a swollen stream hours before, was recovered.
In Pinar del Río they continue 4,480 evacuated and 302 damages have been reported to electrical service.
“In the provinces of Cienfuegos, Villa Clara and Sancti Spíritus, the rains have been beneficial and so far no major damage has been reported,” the Cuban Presidency published, while noting that in Mayabeque 17 homes suffered damage and crops were affected. cucumber, melon and corn.
In Pinar del Río there are still 4,480 evacuees and 302 affectations to the electrical service have been reported
On the Isle of Youth, four families were helped and the biggest problem “is leaks in buildings,” while in Matanzas the return to their homes of some 250 people who were evacuated began and, in addition, there are 14 damaged homes. In Artemisa, “a severe local storm occurred in the municipality of Candelaria, which affected 22 homes on their roofs,” local authorities said.
The Institute of Meteorology of Cuba predicts for this Saturday that in a large part of the western and central regions it will continue to be mostly cloudy “with showers, rains and some electrical storms that will be strong and locally intense”, in some territories, although it announced that the rains “will gradually decrease from the afternoon in the Occident”.
It also warned of swells on the southwestern and central coast and in the northwestern coast. “In areas of showers and thunderstorms, both the strength of the winds and the height of the waves will increase.”
The intense rains have so far left three dead in western Cuba and one missing.
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