The meeting of the National Defense Council headed by its President, comrade Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, had just concluded this Sunday, when from his account on the social network X - apropos of the seismic activity that occurred in the morning hours in the eastern part of the archipelago - the Head of State wrote, after two o'clock in the afternoon:
“From the National Defense Council, we communicated with the first Party secretaries in Santiago de Cuba and Granma, provinces affected by the recent earthquakes.”
“There have been landslides, damage to homes and power lines”.
In another tweet referring to the natural phenomenon that triggers alarms again in Cuba, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party expressed, “We ask our population in those areas to go out and stay in open places.”
“We began to assess damages to start recovery. First and foremost, and essential, saving lives.”
At the meeting of the National Defense Council - which took place at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba to follow up on the recovery work after the passage of Hurricane Rafael - the country's leadership made the first analyses to deploy actions in the areas affected by the quake.
At the close of noon, the Central Station of the National Seismological Service made public the following note: “The network of stations of the Cuban National Seismological Service has registered an earthquake reported as perceptible at 11:49 local time, located at coordinates 19.2 degrees north latitude and -76.99 degrees west longitude, at a depth of 10.0 km with a magnitude of 6.7, located 32 kilometers southeast of Pilon, Granma province.”
“So far, reports of perceptibility have been received in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Granma, and Holguin. At the closing of the information material damages are reported in Pilon, up to this moment.”
“This is the 14th perceptible earthquake of the year 2024”.
The Head of State gave essential orientations in a day of analysis and follow-up, which also counted from the presidency with the Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Roberto Morales Ojeda; with the Hero of the Republic of Cuba and Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), Army Corps General Álvaro López Miera; with the Minister of the Interior of Cuba, Major General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas - all three, members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party.
President Díaz-Canel indicated that people should be moved down from high buildings; that health experts, communicators, and psychologists should reach the areas where the seismic activity has had an impact; that where there is a significant number of people concentrated, the distribution of water and food should be guaranteed; that the communication of each event should flow constantly to the Provincial Defense Committee, from where, in turn, communication with the country's leadership will flow; and that the damage should be evaluated to provide the necessary responses.
In the provinces affected by the hurricane
From the province of Artemisa, and accompanied by the Commander of the Revolution and Vice Premier, Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, the president of the Provincial Defense Council, Gladys Martínez Verdecia, informed that 245 people -at the time of the check- were protected in the territory.
She also said that more than 5,700 clients already had access to electricity; that 60 percent of the population already had access to a fixed telephone; while 40 percent could already count on mobile telephone service. As for having access to water supply, up to the time of the meeting, 17 percent of the population had access to the precious liquid.
“We can already see some progress”, said the party leader, who offered details on vital fronts such as the restoration of Public Health facilities, the distribution of food, or the work in agriculture - where, for example, brigades are being incorporated to work on the recovery of irrigation machines.
Among other information, Gladys Martínez pointed out that 4,000 cubic meters of zinc roof tiles and 60 tons of cement will have arrived in the province shortly.
As regards Mayabeque, it was learned that the electric power system had recovered to 77 percent, although the municipality of Quivicán was completely without the precious service.
Regarding the reestablishment of communications, the president of the Provincial Defense Council, Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, commented that, despite the efforts made, there is still not as much progress as desired. As for water supply, the situation is still complex.
President Díaz-Canel inquired about the sanitation work in the towns and municipalities, as well as about the progress of the work to reestablish the water service.
In Havana, the country's leadership was able to learn that some 90 people remain protected in eleven institutions; that 850 homes were affected; and that about 90 percent of the territory's circuits have electricity service.
Although everything that has been done in these hours may seem like something more than every day, Cuba has been able to see many faces of people who -as the Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Roberto Morales Ojeda, said at one point during the check-up- “have done real feats”.
When communicating indications related to what to do after the hurricane, the President of the National Defense Council, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, reflected that now the most important thing is to conclude with the most complicated part of the sanitation; and that it is important to focus on the issues of water and electricity, since there are people who have already been without those services for four days.
“I believe that a lot of work has been done in these days”, said the dignitary, who emphasized to continue making efforts to mitigate, in the shortest possible time, the effects of the devastation left by the meteor.