Cuban president calls for preparedness in face of coming rains
Havana, November 2.- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel presided over a meeting to check the recovery of the eastern territories impacted by the passage of the hydrometeorological phenomenon Oscar, and other current issues.
At the meeting, held at the Palace of the Revolution, the general director of the Institute of Meteorology (Insmet), Celso Pazos Alberdi explained that starting this weekend, and during the course of the next, very favorable conditions for rainfall will prevail throughout the country.
“For the moment,” he said, “the main assessment is aimed at the rain phenomenon: “We are maintaining total vigilance,” he stressed.
In a session that also included Salvador Valdés Mesa, member of the Political Bureau of the CCPCC and Vice President of the Republic, from the Presidency, Pazos Alberdi offered details of two areas included in the general satellite image.
He said that observation continues on the first, located north of the Lesser Antilles, which extends from that area to the Atlantic Ocean.
Celso referred to an “area of interest, although with a low probability of development,” which causes conditions of “disturbed weather, showers, rain, and thunderstorms.” A large part of these clouds – the meteorologist said – will continue moving west and west-northwest, and will be approaching the eastern region of Cuba.
He specified that from this Saturday – in the evening – cloudiness will increase again, which will increase by Sunday.
Regarding this forecast, President Díaz-Canel warned that the land is already saturated with water.
Regarding the second area, Celso Pazos pointed out that it is “the one that remains in the south of the Caribbean Sea”, which – at the time of the explanation – was wide but very disorganized, “although today the forecast models give it a greater probability of development.”
The expert commented that a low pressure center is expected to appear in that area in the next few days, whose general movement would occur between the north and the northwest; which, in any case, would bring the meteorological phenomenon closer to the southern coast of Cuban territory.
In the midst of this panorama that requires all possible vigilance, the country’s leadership was able to update the information regarding the recovery of Guantánamo.
Through a video conference, the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the PCC in that territory, Yoel Pérez García, informed the country’s leadership that work continues without pause in that eastern area.
In this type of meeting, details are known about how the province of Guantánamo is recovering from the recent hurricane Oscar.
Decision-makers and entities that are responsible for every aspect of life in that region of the country participate in the meeting.
The party leader said that resources continue to arrive, and that a group of houses in the province are being restored.
Regarding what is needed to rebuild buildings, Pérez García said that they are waiting for the arrival of a train with construction materials.
And to the question of the Head of State about whether it was possible to reach all the places hit by the meteorological event, the answer was affirmative.
Regarding the restoration of electrical service, the first secretary in Guantánamo reported that the province is at 90.4 percent of progress.
As for communications – a topic that the president also expressed interest in – he said that progress has not yet been made as much as one would like, although work continues intensively. (Take from Radio Habana Cuba)