The Government of Venezuela sent 22 specialists in electricity, transportation and public works to Cuba this Monday, after the impact of the Hurricane Melissa which left significant damage in the east of the island.
“It must be understood that this sending of 22 professionals to the sister Republic of Cuba, who are going to reinforce the teams there, has the purpose of being able to recover the power lines, to be able to make a diagnosis to continue sending aid,” explained the vice minister for Latin America, Rander Peña, in statements to the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), cited by EFE.
For his part, the Cuban Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, noted on Facebook that the Venezuelan technical mission will also provide specialized collaboration in the diagnosis and rehabilitation of road and bridge infrastructure in the areas most impacted by the meteorological phenomenon.
“Among the experts that make up the brigade are specialists in bridges, civil engineers, experts in road care, technicians in road works, specialists in communication routes,” he added.
The impact of Hurricane Melissa paralyzed important sections of the railway in eastern Cuba and left significant damage to the railway network, from undermined bridges to collapsed drains.
This panorama forces most of the national trains to be suspended—with the exception of the Holguín, which it has already been restored— and essential industrial services for the harvest and passenger transportation, Rodríguez Dávila detailed in a recent publication.
According to the official, the lack of resources and the magnitude of the damage prevent a full recovery, which causes a chain of interruptions that affects everything from the Havana-Santiago connection to the fuel supply and agricultural mobility.
Damage caused by Melissa keeps the railways in eastern Cuba in check
Damage and humanitarian aid
On Saturday, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) announced the sending of a ship with humanitarian aid to Cuba. The ship set sail from the port of La Guaira state with 5 thousand tons of food, belongings, medicine, toys, as well as an “electrical brigade.”
The devastating Hurricane Melissa damaged more than 90 thousand homes and 100 thousand hectares of crops in Cuba, according to updated calculations from the United Nations, which significantly increase the previous figures reported by the Cuban Government and international organizations.
This represents an increase of around 15% in the number of homes damaged (partially or completely) by the hurricane and an increase of 22% in the affected agricultural area compared to the latest data published by the Government of Cuba.
A United Nations delegation that traveled to the field to verify the effects of Melissa described as “enormous” the damage caused by this hurricane, which crossed eastern Cuba twelve days ago as a category 3 (out of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
According to preliminary official reports, some 600 state medical infrastructures and more than 2,000 educational centers have suffered damages of varying degrees, putting essential services for the population in check.
EFE / OnCuba.
