As of June 13, six deaths are to be deplored because of the heavy rains that have been hitting the island for several days. In the east, several rivers overflowed, causing landslides and preventing access to certain areas. In a state of alert, the authorities appealed for international aid, in particular that of UN agencies.
The rain has not stopped falling in central and eastern Cuba since Thursday, June 8, 2023. The material and human damage is significant, even if not all of it is yet known.
In the eastern province of Granma, more than 9,000 people have lost their often precarious housing. The majority have been evacuated. Two men died in this province, drowned. In several localities, bridges and roads were damaged, preventing the deployment of relief. Las Tunas, an agricultural province, saw hundreds of hectares of crops destroyed. The problem of lack of drinking water is the most worrying. In many localities, it has been made inaccessible by bad weather.
The Ministry of Health nevertheless split a tweet asking the population to take care to avoid leaving damp places, where mosquito larvae, carriers of diseases, could proliferate. A message difficult to hear as the authorities reacted late to the events.
The official press on Tuesday recognized that these rains were “ An infrequent event that we must be prepared for “. According to the Head of State, Miguel Diaz-Canel, ” flooding reached levels not seen in the last thirty years, and in many places locals said it was the first time the water had reached such heights, especially after extreme drought “.
Teams have since been dispatched to affected areas to evacuate thousands of people.