“With the cyclone, the first thing they do is remove the current. And then, how are we supposed to cook?” asks a Holguín resident.
HOLGUÍN, Cuba. – Hurricane Melissa crossed the province of Holguín this Wednesday morning with category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale: in its wake it left severe flooding, fallen trees, power outages and damage to communications. Preliminarily, local authorities reported that the loss of human life had not been recorded until now.”
The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) had warned that in eastern Cuba the total accumulated rainfall would be “10 to 20 inches, with local maximums of up to 25 inches” and that this would cause “life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flash floods, with numerous landslides.”
In the early hours of this Wednesday, the number of evacuees in Holguín ascended to “more than 265,000 citizens,” according to reports from the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
The local press accurate that the intense rains and winds of Melissa caused “severe flooding” and falling trees, affecting communications in municipalities such as Urbano Noris, the city of Holguín and Mayarí. “Preliminary reports identify damage to infrastructure and the economy,” said Radio Angulo.
The first graphic evidence and testimonies published this Wednesday show flooding and flooding in various parts of the province, mainly in Sagua de Tánamo, one of the most affected municipalities.
In the midst of the blackouts and the lack of timely information, residents of the provincial capital and other districts described CubaNet the uncertainty of facing the hurricane and the day after: “Here we don’t know anything because there is no current, we are completely blind. Where are we going to hear the news? We are going to find out when we have the cyclone upon us,” lamented María Elena Rodríguez, from the Alcides Pino neighborhood, before the arrival of the meteor.
“With the cyclone, the first thing they do is remove the current. And then, how are we supposed to cook the rice they gave us as a donation?” questioned Carlos Batista, from the Villa Nueva neighborhood. “We will have to solve it with firewood. The thing is to guarantee firewood, because there is no other option,” said Juana Pérez, from Pueblo Nuevo.
The Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) of Cuba and national media They located the center of Melissa on Holguín territory between dawn and this Wednesday morning, with access to the sea through Banes hours later. The NHC warning about “life-threatening” rains and landslides remained in place for eastern Cuba during the morning, with a tendency to subside in the afternoon as the system moved away towards the Bahamas.
In the absence of a consolidated damage report, the first hours after the impact have been marked by desperation and the evaluation of the damage.
