Cuba coordinates national and international efforts after Melissa

Havana, November 1. – Cuban authorities are intensifying recovery efforts in the eastern provinces affected by Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometers per hour and Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Heavy rainfall and strong winds caused flooding, damage to homes, power grids and communication routes in the territories of Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas.

Despite the magnitude of the hydrometeorological phenomenon, preventive actions have so far prevented loss of life.

In support of the affected population, the Cuban government approved a series of economic measures aimed at facilitating housing rehabilitation and ensuring job and wage stability in the impacted areas.

The First Deputy Minister of Finance and Prices, Maritza Cruz, announced that an agreement has been reached guaranteeing a 50 percent discount on construction materials for all individuals whose homes have suffered partial or total damage.

“The agreement not only includes the 50 percent discount, but also stipulates that the budget will cover the interest and fees on bank loans. This way, people who need a bank loan will not pay the interest, and the fees will be covered by the state budget,” Cruz explained.

The official specified that, prior to the hurricane, the delivery of all necessary resources to the eastern provinces for the payment of pensions and salaries was guaranteed, and specific instructions were issued regarding labor and salary treatments to ensure that no worker would be left without support.

Technical teams, brigades, and members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces are working in coordination to restore essential services, assess structural damage, and provide assistance to the most vulnerable communities.

In this context, the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Déborah Rivas, highlighted during the television program Mesa Redonda the broad response from the international community following Hurricane Melissa, in a gesture she described as “a concrete expression of the solidarity that Cuba has sown in the world.”

Rivas emphasized that “the cooperation we are receiving today is in line with our principle of a solidarity-based and internationalist foreign policy. It is the same spirit with which the Revolution has supported other nations in difficult times, and which today is being reciprocated in support of our country.”

She also stressed that this international trust is based on the transparency and traceability with which Cuba uses the resources received.

All donations, she said, are channeled through the municipal defense councils, which ensure that aid arrives directly to the beneficiaries affected by the natural disaster. (Take from Radio Cadena Agramonte)