In a meeting with national and provincial authorities, via videoconference, Mr. Marrero warned about how careful local authorities must be concerning clean-up and organization efforts following pelting rains that left three dead, floods and also damaged national grid and farming system.
We must keep the risk assessment because rivers continue being swollen, Mr. Marrero stressed in a meeting held at the headquarters of the National Staff for Civil Defense and also attended by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
On Twitter, the Presidency posted that ministers and deputy prime ministers, as well as provincial authorities detailed about damage and actions being taken.
Yamilé Ramos, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, in Spanish) in Pinar del Río, the province most affected by the heavy rains, reported one death and one missing person, and as many as 4,480 people were evacuated.
Floods in Pinar del Río isolated 11 zones and 302 were affected with no energy service. In Artemisa, a severe local storm occurred in the Candelaria municipality, where 22 houses were damaged; however, the pelting rains in some way benefited agriculture and the filling-up in dam-reservoirs.
Rainfall has been quite convenient, and no major damage has been so far reported in the central provinces of Cienfuegos, Villa Clara and Sancti Spíritus.
Havana is currently in a much more complicated scenario due to the floods and aged city, said Luis Antonio Torres, first secretary of PCC in Havana, who also informed and regretted two dead people. There were 111 landslides, 552 people had to be evacuated, and 3,970 self-evacuees at relatives and friends´ houses.
During the meeting, President Díaz-Canel praised the work of the seven PCC secretaries who are in charge of the territories affected by the rains (10 in total).
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