Havana, Cuba.- Under the principle of saving human life, the Cuban State -through Civil Defense and back-up organizations- had firstly evacuated 1,738,000 people before being hit by powerful hurricane Irma, that left huge damages, among them in the national electric system.
This statistics were announced at an extraordinary meeting of the National Defense Council, led by the Cuban President Raul Castro, on which Granma journal is providing further details Friday.
The Chief of Cuba’s National Staff for Civil Defense, Major General Ramon Pardo Guerra, has reported that over 26,000 people currently remain staying in evacuation centers, while the National Bureau of Statistics and Information said that it still assessing the huge damage caused by Hurricane Irma.
Irma hammered the Cuban north coast through the province of Camaguey and ravaging the Caribbean island from east to west for nearly four days with strong winds reaching up to 255 kph with higher bursts.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Alfredo Lopez Valdez, stated that the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant -located in Matanzas province- was the most-affected facility. In order to be compensated for the huge damage caused by Hurricane Irma, a highly trained workforce is nowadays making a hard work on this important power plant.
Lopez Valdez said that Hurricane Irma caused that, for the first time, the electroenergetic system stopped working nationwide. About 15 high voltage lines were damaged and as many as 2,039 km of distribution power lines were also affected.
He also stated that about 90 oil wells, located on the north coast of the west and center of Cuba, were harshly damaged by the strong waves.
The Ministry of Construction said that 20,400 constructors and 855 engineering machines were used to the urban and road clean-up works. This workforce was assigned for debris clean-up, road, bridge, house and sewer repairs, as well as social works.
The Minister of Construction, Rene Mesa Villafana, explained that the houses were the most damaged, and even though we do not have the exact details of damage the work is already being done to help the victims.
Meanwhile, the most serious damage to agriculture was the poultry area, as dozens of poultry houses lost their roofs, according to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture Julio A. Garcia Perez, who also referred to the damage on animal feedstuff processing, banana and maize crops, as well as fruit trees.
In turn, the Minister of Public Health Roberto Morales Ojeda said that 516 health units were damaged and they are working to restore these as soon as possible, but Cuban people was always provided with medical care, particularly the most-affected ones.
According to the Minister of Tourism, Manuel Marrero Cruz, over 51,000 tourists were in Cuba when Hurricane Irma passed, 45,000 of them were lodged on the north coast.
About 10,000 tourist visitors -accommodated at Santa Maria, Coco and Guillermo keys- had to be evacuated, he said and detailed that this sector is being already recovering damaged infrastructures to host the high tourist season from the second half of November.