Nova Scotia Cuba Association

 

If you keep working this way, soon we could be back to normal. 

Leticia Martinez Hernandez, internet@granma.cu

  Estudios Revolución

Cueto, Holguin -The images of the last days of October are still fresh in the collective memory. They went viral on the net showing houses of Cueto (Holguin) with water up to their roofs -a land almost regularly asphyxiated by drought. The strong rains of Melissa -which arrived in Cuba on October 29, and with category 3 qualified as “devastating,” brought waters rising to heights never seen before, not even during the challenging days of cyclone Flora.  

People from the popular council of Cueto West (circumscription 49) told the president of the Council of National Defense, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, about that terrible night and dawn and what followed after. The Cuban president was visiting Holguin for the third time after Melissa, this time he was in the municipalities of Cueto and Sagua de Tánamo, located at the south and northeast of the region respectively.

With the president were as before, vice-prime ministers, ministers y other authorities from the areas involved in the recovery -such as economy and planification, energy and hydraulic resources, commerce (internal and external), construction, communications, agriculture and health, with the goal of facilitating solutions on the ground and with local authorities.

More than 15 thousand people were evacuated in Cueto, according to the president of the Municipal Council of Defense, William Cruz, evacuation included areas where never before such measures had been needed. In Cueto West, more than 130 houses suffered damages, in this municipality more that a thousand such damages included mattresses and electro-domestic wet because of the rising of the Barajagua river, as residents told the President of Cuba.

The President visited another neighbourhood while under the rain, also in Cueto, Balín (circumscription 11), where neighbours told him about suffering similar experiences which encouraged the President to actualize plans to ensure reducing such occurrences in the future. Díaz-Canel explained that support was in the way -some directly acquired by the Cuban government, some donated by countries and international organizations, as well as by the solidarity movement outside and inside Cuba.  Be sure, he said, nobody will be forgotten.  

Yesterday, on his visit to Sagua de Tánamo, the president was shocked by the floods. He was at the bridge over the Miguel Sagua de Tanamo River, very well built and in perfect shape but he could see the devastation on its left margin, he could see three collapsed wells responsible for providing drinking water to the more than 41 thousand inhabitants of the municipality. Joel Queipo Ruiz, president of the Municipal Council of Defense explained they have found alternative sources to provide for the people and a new well is being built in a higher location, it makes little sense to continue to pump water so close to the river and it could collapse in the future.

The President's agenda also included the specific community of El Martillo, close to the river, where the river waters also flooded houses. Diaz-Canel made a note of the discipline of the population of Sagua, whose work prevented the danger of loss of lives. A community leader said «Be sure, President, that Sagua will rise again» showing that the municipality's trust in recovering is stronger than the river itself, today very calm.

Close, the medical clinic Jorge Fernández Arderí is also recovering after the challenging days brought by Melissa. The President chatted with his directive team, mostly Young, who confirmed that they are already offering full services. The President insisted during the conversation on the importance of assuming with similar priority not only the work of recovery but also the complex viral epidemic of chikungunya and dengue -a health problem more challenging now in the aftermath of Melissa.

Positive Numbers

At the end of this visit to Holguín, 23 días after the cyclone affecting Eastern Cuba, President Díaz-Canel led a working meeting including members of the Provincial Defence Council -fourteen municipalities in total of which Sagua, Frank País and Urbano Noris are still recovering while the other eleven are back to normality, showing a high efficiency in the work.

Queipo Ruiz informed that of the 300 000 people protected nobody remains as evacuated at this point. Vital services have been re-established, for example electricity is now 97,3 percent working and it will be 99 per cent by Sunday, even though there are some more complicated areas in the mountains because of challenging access. Communications have also recovered up to 95,4 per cent and they also will be fully functional by Sunday.  Garbage left by Melissa was also picked up at a rate by now of 80 per cent while the municipalities of Holguin and Mayari are pending completion and will soon ensure the complete clean up of the province.

Even though rains were very damaging to housing and cultivars, to cite two examples, 94 per cent of the dams were filled, while prior to the cyclone they were at 61 percent capacity. The territory probably retained more than 246 million cubic-meters of water.  About the dams, 18 of the 23 in the province were pouring water, and today they are still doing it, something that will help with water supply for the population and agriculture.

About the damages to housing there are close to 34 thousand units damaged, and about one thousand collapsed in total, these numbers are being corroborated to ensure they are exact. The issue of mattresses is serious, Queipo Ruiz said, we need 10 200 of which “ 1 004 have been delivered or recovered.”  Local shops have been conditioned together with the cloth factory (Hilandería de Gibara) to focus on this work which is very crucial today.

Regarding the work to “erase” the damage of Melissa in Holguin, the President Díaz-Canel said: “if you continue working as now, soon we will be able to be back to normal.” This longing for normalcy is expected when nature fury hits once and once again, a people who raises itself with its own efforts and the support and help of many. At the last minute of this visit, and a bit before departing for Havana, the President stopped at the stadium Mayor General Calixto García, where at noon this Friday the teams of Holguín and Santiago confronted each other as part of the 64 National Series of Beisbol (Baseball Series), headed by the team “Cachorros” of Holguin. Diaz-Canel greeted both teams and the people of Holguin enjoying the baseball game, a passion that not even Melissa could take from Cuba. 

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)