[NYTr] Cuba: Progress Report on Recovery from Torrential Rains

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Progress Report: Recovering from Damage Inflicted by Heavy Rains

Bayamo, eastern Cuba, Nov 12 (acn) Cubans in eastern Granma province 
intensify recovery actions to clean the damage inflicted by heavy rains 
and floods that affected this territory over the past weeks. The repair 
of roads, distribution of construction materials to rebuild damaged 
houses and the return of thousands evacuees home have been major 
actions in the eastern territory over the past days. Sources with the 
Provincial Defense Council recalled that during the peak of the natural 
phenomenon, some 42,953 persons were evacuated to safe places. 
Preventive measures against any possible epidemiological outbreak are a 
priority, particularly in the municipality known as Rio Cauto, where 
overflowed rivers and lagoons killed thousands of animals.

The Provincial Defense authority said that the road system and the 
agriculture sector have been severely damaged, when the impact on 
housing has not yet been completely assessed since a large number of 
homes are still flooded. Latest report says that some 19,917 homes 
were affected, with over 1000 of them totally collapsed.

The combination of adverse weather phenomena led up to a complex 
situation in the province of Granma, said the head of Operations of the 
Cuban Armed Forces, division general Leonardo Andoyo, who stressed the 
need for the country to prepare for the worse situation every time such 
a phenomenon could take place. On October 29, heavy rains associated 
with tropical storm Noel began to affect the eastern province;
rainfalls intensified during the first week of November, which caused
huge floods in several municipalities in the region. The
over-saturation of the land plus South winds and heavy sea in the
Guacanayabo Gulf caused overflowed rivers, lagoons, reservoirs and
Canals, whose flow into the sea turned very difficult.