HAVANA (AP) — As Hurricane Rafael moved away from Cuba this Thursday morning, entering the Gulf of Mexico, the island sought to recover from its passage through the west; The event caused a national blackout that remains in much of the country.
The capital, one of the areas most affected by Rafael’s winds and downpours, woke up with a cloudy sky but few rains that fell, at times, but violently, after an early morning of strong gusts that shook everything.
Meanwhile, a scene of fallen trees blocking central streets, electrical poles on the ground and some landslides could be seen, The Associated Press confirmed.
“The entire front wall of the building fell down, the one that faces the street,” José Ignacio Dimas, a resident of Centro Habana, who arrived home on Thursday morning after working all day, told the AP in a distressed tone. the night in a guard at the University, to find the surprise. “The construction was very bad, water leaked, I was afraid that this disaster would happen one day,” he lamented.
Dimas — who lives alone — said that in the neighborhood they told him that his neighbors, three adults and two children, were evacuated, but he does not know where, and the phones were not working.
The concern of the authorities and citizens around Havana is due to the deteriorated housing stock in places such as Old Havana and Central Havana.
The day before, the government reported that some 50,000 people had been protected in Havana, some 13,000 in Villa Clara and another thousands in Sancti Spíritus, Mayabeque, Artemisa, the Isle of Youth and Pinar del Río. All, inhabitants of low-lying areas with danger of flooding, or because their houses were in poor condition.
So far, no injuries or deaths have been reported.
In the morning, residents in various parts of Havana began to organize to remove debris, tons of branches and garbage scattered everywhere.
“We are making a broth (a popular pot) to call for voluntary (community) work after a hurricane that wiped out everything. But we get up and move forward,” Ángel Cartaya, a 39-year-old baker who, with shovel in hand, was cleaning the corner of 21st and E in Vedado, told the AP. A few blocks away, a huge tree blocked the passage of vehicles, and the electricity and telephone cables were on the ground.
“The (electrical) system went down, but if we don’t do community work among neighbors, no one does it, it is for the good of us and the families,” added Ariel Calvo, while helping Cartaya.
The absence of energy – and the difficulties that this causes, from the loss of water pumping, to cooking or preserving food, to the possibility of communicating with relatives and friends – was what most worried the residents of Havana. .
Small private businesses with power plants and the Cohíba hotel offered the residents of the Plaza de la Revolución municipality in solidarity the possibility of charging lamps and cell phones. When the AP arrived there were several hundred people in a long line.
The highway from Havana to Batabanó, in southern Cuba, was practically impassable on Thursday, with dozens of poles and power lines on the ground; and the town itself with the same name were severely flooded, the AP found.
Rafael made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane around 4:20 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, local time, near Playa Majana, and the storm’s vortex left the island two hours later at Bahía Cabañas, both towns in the province. of Artemis.
Shortly before even making landfall, in the face of Rafael’s approach with its strong winds, the Electrical Union (UNE) reported a disconnection of the national energy system that left the entire island without electrical service from the west – where the cyclone passed – to the east.
On Thursday morning, engineer Lázaro Guerra, director of Electrical Energy of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, indicated that the service had been partially restored in the east of the country and generation units had begun to start up, although he warned that in the The West would take longer due to the need to check and certify the lines before putting in the fluid to avoid greater harm.
A message from the UNE called on the population not to touch fallen cables and to contribute to the maintenance crews by reporting any damage they saw.
The passage of Cyclone Rafael adds to other problems that Cuba suffers from the economic to the social. Precisely two weeks ago it was hit by another cyclone, Oscar, this time in the east of the country and which left eight dead and extensive material damage to roads, infrastructure and crops.
At that time, another collapse occurred due to disconnection of the national energy system – a total blackout – this time due to a lack of fuel and the breakdown of a thermoelectric plant. The authorities recognized the fragility of the network.
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