By Granma on November 12, 2024
Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel. Photos: Estudios Revolución.
We are running this article to demonstrate the tremendous human effort the Cuban people are putting up to get back on their feet after these 3 natural disasters hit the island in the span of a couple of weeks. It is the perfect time to increase the demand for Biden to take Cuba off of the scurrilous State Sponsors of Terrorism list (SSOT) before he leaves office. One immediate personal way to support the emergency situation is to send a donation to The Peoples Forum that is already delivering critical supplies to the island.
The President of the National Defense Council (CDN), Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, highlighted the intense work being carried out in Granma and Santiago de Cuba against the effects of Sunday’s earthquakes, in the vicinity of Pilón; the one being waged in Artemisa, Havana and Mayabeque to recover from Hurricane Rafael; and the one being carried out by Guantanameros to erase the traces of Hurricane Oscar.
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic headed the CDN checkup meeting yesterday, through videoconference, the CDN, which also included the members of the Political Bureau, Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister; Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, and Salvador Valdés Mesa, Vice President of the Republic.
In view of the current seismic situation, special measures have been adopted in Santiago de Cuba for this entire week, including the amplification of information to the population, in which, after overcoming the psychological effect of the tremor south of Pilon, the perception of danger is decreasing, according to the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, reminding everyone that is still necessary to remain alert.
She explained that this Monday night an exercise of the direction systems in the province was planned to be carried out, in case of an earthquake of greater intensity.
She reported that the National Center for Seismological Research (Cenais) since Sunday has registered more than 1,130 aftershocks, more than fifty of them perceptible.
According to preliminary data, in Santiago de Cuba, more than 230 houses were affected by the earthquake in the municipalities closest to the epicenter. Damages are reported in some state, educational and health institutions, among others.
About the situation in Granma province, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, highlighted the organized response that the political and government authorities of the province, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior, Public Health, and the Electrical Union, have given in the face of the sudden earthquake of great magnitude.
Lorenzo went on to emphasize that it is necessary to visit all the families, because even if they have not suffered physical or material damages, they have experienced a traumatic event, and it is urgent to transmit confidence and security, as well as to maintain information and social communication through all channels.
According to preliminary data, seven people were reported injured in the province; 2,018 houses were damaged, 26 of them are in total collapse, and 140 state entities were damaged. Initially, nine landslides were reported, interrupting many mountain roads.
He notified that the offices to process the damage to houses are working, but it is necessary to make a structural diagnosis of the buildings, with specialized professionals, to certify that they are stable, that they are not going to fail.
People, he explained, are asking themselves two main questions: if there will be another earthquake, and who guarantees that the house or building will not fall down. That is why these structural diagnoses are necessary for the restitution of normality and to advance in this direction in the shortest possible time.
The head of the Ministry of Construction, René Mesa Villafaña, who is in Artemisa directing the actions of the workers of the sector in the recovery of this province, that was most affected by hurricane Rafael, added that 85 certified engineers will be sent to Granma and Santiago de Cuba to make diagnoses in buildings affected by earthquakes.
Villafaña also explained that specialized brigades from Granma, those that were working on the recovery of Guantánamo after the passage of hurricane Oscar, will return to his province to work on the mountain roads affected by landslides.
Broche Lorenzo, when taking the floor, also underlined the immediate response of the electrical workers, who, despite having sent several brigades to the west, have had to face the effects of the earthquake with their own forces.
Also accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Eduardo Martinez Diaz, the priorities of the provincial authorities are in Pilon, whose population strongly felt the shocks of the earthquake, and most of whom slept Sunday night outside their homes, in the open air, as is understandable in the face of this threat.
Broche Lorenzo highlighted the immediate response that was given for the cooking and distribution of food among the inhabitants of the town, with the participation of state and non-state institutions.
For Monday night and the next few days, tents and tarpaulins are being prepared and set up for the sheltered people, while medical brigades and psychology and psychiatry professionals are beginning to arrive, both for adults and for the pediatric population. Students from the University of Medical Sciences and their professors will also be deployed to provide personalized attention to the inhabitants of Pilón.
RAFAEL: A BAD STORY THAT IS BEING OVERCOME
The recovery actions after the passage of hurricane Rafael through Artemisa, Havana and Mayabeque, was the second point of the meeting of the National Defense Council.
Accompanied by the Vice Prime Minister, Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, and by the member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, Yudí Rodríguez Hernández, the member of the Political Bureau and first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party in Artemisa, Gladys Martínez Verdecia, relayed that 245 evacuees are still being attended to, although solutions are being sought for their return to their daily lives.
This was the territory most affected by the most recent hurricane. Regarding electricity, he explained that the service is still minimal, barely covering about 2 % of the clients, although the rehabilitation works is predicted to increase progressively this week, and with it the water supply.
Fixed telephones are at 61.2% coverage, and mobile phones at 34.4%, and Etecsa brigades will arrive from six provinces. Solid waste collection is also progressing gradually.
Preliminarily, in Artemisa there are 15,453 houses with damage, total and partial landslides and total and partial loss of roofs, mostly the latter. Resources are arriving to advance in the recovery.
Attention is being paid to health facilities, especially to the rehabilitation of the hospitals in the city of Artemisa and the pediatric hospital of Guanajay, and the hospitals of San Antonio de los Baños and San Cristóbal.
In agriculture, reported Martínez Verdecia, 15,192 hectares of affected crops are being replanted; about 1,000 have been recovered, including 610 hectares of bananas under development; work is being carried out for the immediate recovery of 11 central pivot irrigation machines.
In Mayabeque, the school year restarted in nine of its 11 municipalities, except in Batabanó and Quivicán, the hardest hit by Rafael. Eighty-nine percent of the customers of the Electric Company have service, and todayit should reach most of the users. The water supply covers 68 % of the users.
In housing, 2 213 damages were reported, mainly in Batabanó, with 1 171 cases, mainly partial loss of roofs, and in Quivicán, with 543 cases.
Damages in agriculture have led, in turn, to rethink the strategy of the cold campaign, especially in rice, beans, bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes and corn.
Regarding the recovery in Havana, whose authorities have the support of the member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz, and Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman Waugh, informed the First Secretary of the Provincial Committee, Liván Izquierdo Alonso, it was said that the school year was restarted in 1 209 schools, and an attendance of 92.38 % of the student body.
The water service is at 72.2 %, and work is being done to recover affected systems and pumps; about half a million inhabitants of Havana are still without water supply.
In the early hours of Monday afternoon, electricity was restored to 96.14% of customers. Some 16 circuits are still not energized, mainly in Boyeros and La Lisa. In the capital, 22 families were evacuated, with 86 people. In housing, 932 people are reported to have been affected; more than 3,000 people have been assisted in the offices.
OSCAR, LESS AND LESS
The first secretary of the Provincial Party Committee in Guantánamo, Yoel Pérez García, also reported on the situation caused by the earthquake and the recovery from Hurricane Oscar.
The school year in the province began this Monday, with most of the educational institutions recovered in San Antonio del Sur, Imías, Maisí and Baracoa. 99.6% of the electric service has been restored, as well as 93% of the water supply and 87% of communications.
The recovery of mountain roads is progressing and a first class professional team is evaluating the solutions to be given to the La Farola Viaduct.
Source: Cuba en Resumen