The Cuban Government updated this Thursday the preliminary balance of the damages caused by the Hurricane Melissawhich intensely hit the east of the island a week ago and left severe damage in a country already burdened by a prolonged economic crisis.
According to the government report, the housing sector shows a very difficult scenario. So far, there are 76,689 houses affected by the meteorological phenomenon, of which 4,743 suffered total collapses, figures that the authorities described as “large.”
During a meeting of the National Defense Council, broadcast on the program Round Tablethe president Miguel Diaz-Canel He warned that “any preliminary figure is below the real impact” and warned that “the hardest stage” of the recovery process now begins.
The Cuban president acknowledged that, based on the magnitude of the damage, the reconstruction “is going to take a while,” according to a report from the agency. EFE.
Melissa impacted the eastern Cuban provinces for seven hours. In its wake, it caused significant damage to electrical and telecommunications infrastructure, destroyed houses, roads and bridges and left communities completely flooded.
Damage and challenges
The reestablishment of drinking water service is among the main challenges for the territories affected by the hurricane, due to their dependence on electrical energy. In some places, supply is maintained by tanker trucks.
In Santiago de Cuba it had not yet been possible to reach the majority of the population, which kept it as a “priority to concentrate the largest number of people without access to the service.” In Granma, for its part, the installation of purification plants is planned in areas affected by the flooding of the Cauto River, whose supply sources were contaminated by the floods.
In terms of protection, more than 1.3 million people were evacuated or sheltered, according to the Government. Of these, nearly 70,000 remained in state centers and 933,000 were welcomed in the homes of relatives or friends. Still 54 thousand people remained under protection.
At the meeting, Díaz-Canel stressed again that “no loss of human life has been reported,” even though possible victims have been mentioned in unofficial networks and media without official confirmation.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso, explained that, among the damaged homes, 10,311 were partially damaged, 12,056 were left without roofs and 47,753 lost part of their roof. Of the latter, 2,190 properties have already been recovered, he said.
Regarding the agricultural sector, the losses are very important. In Granma alone there are 47,833 hectares of damaged crops and in Holguín nearly 36,000, while in Santiago “severe damage” is reported in coffee, banana, cassava crops and forest areas.
| President @DiazCanelB:
A week later, the wounds that opened #Melissa in his passage through #Cubathey continue to challenge us. The days pass slowly for those who wait for electricity, water, food, the essential materials to recover what the cyclone took away. pic.twitter.com/NtKrhuEllE
— Presidency Cuba (@PresidenciaCuba) November 7, 2025
Critical situation in Santiago de Cuba
During the Round Table, The first secretary of the Communist Party and president of the Provincial Defense Council in Santiago de Cuba, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, explained that that province concentrates the greatest damage:
There, there are 63,103 damaged homes, of which 5,645 total collapses, while the recovery of electrical and telephone service is still very insufficient and there are road damage “in practically all municipalities.”
The party leader pointed out that 12 defense zones of the province remain cut off. The most complex situation in this sense is recorded in the municipalities of San Luis, Segundo Frente, Tercer Frente, Palma Soriano, Contramaestre, Guamá and Santiago de Cuba.
In addition, he stressed that reconstruction work has already begun, with the distribution of 26 thousand tons of cement, the recovery of some 500 homes and the electrical reconnection for more than 28 thousand customers in the capital municipality.
And the electricity?
For his part, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, reported on the progress in restoring electricity in the eastern provinces.
According to him, Las Tunas had reached 97.8% restoration, Holguín 61%, Granma 64%, and work was being done to reincorporate Guantánamo into the National Electric System (SEN).
The owner acknowledged that Santiago de Cuba continues to be “the most complex province” due to extensive damage to lines and substations.
Likewise, he mentioned that a distributed generation engine was installed in the Guamá municipality to provisionally restore service.
For her part, the First Vice Minister of Health, Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández, pointed out that 642 health institutions were affected, mainly in Santiago de Cuba (231) and Granma (144), although the health system remains operational and coordinated with the provincial directorates.
Melissa made landfall in Cuba early on October 29 as a powerful Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The meteor crossed the east of the country for about seven hours, with sustained winds of up to 200 km/h, intense rains and a severe storm surge.
