Havana/Two people were reported missing this Thursday due to the flooding of the Sagua de Tánamo River, in Holguín. The official Facebook profile Blogero Tanameño identified Luis Pérez Rodríguez and Antonio Angulo as the two men who were swept away by the current.
Pérez, a former worker at the Directorate of Statistics and Information and former Post Office employee, has been reported missing and “presumably drowned” by the check who broke the news. For his part, Angulo is described as a resident of the town of El Jobo.
The municipal authorities and Civil Defense organizations have not yet issued a complete official report on the disappearance of Luis Pérez Rodríguez and Antonio Angulo, nor have they given details of whether there are search teams deployed in the area.
When water comes down from the hills, the level of the channel can rise in a matter of minutes
The incident occurs in the midst of rains that have affected eastern Cuba, and in particular the Sagua de Tánamo river basin, a channel that grows rapidly if the rainfall occurs in the mountains. When the water comes down from the hills, the level of the channel can rise in a matter of minutes, dragging logs and putting at risk those who live on its banks, fish or swim in its current.
Last September, floods associated with Tropical Storm Imelda left two dead and two other people missing in the province of Santiago de Cuba, according to reports that still classify the situation as a “search” without definitive closure. The road and service infrastructure continues to be affected in much of the area hardest hit by the rains.
These days the Tropical Storm Melissawhich could become a major hurricane over the weekend and will cause rain in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica and is also of interest to Cuba, as indicated this Thursday by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States.
