Raul Visits National Seismological Research Center

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 20 (acn) The President of the councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raul Castro, visited on Friday the National Seismological Research Center in Santiago de Cuba, the Granma newspaper reported.

The Cuban head of state spoke for over two hours with executives and employees of the scientific center, where he learned firsthand about the anomalous situation that has been taking place in the eastern territory since the beginning of January with the occurrence so far of 1,463 earth tremors, 42 of them perceptible by the population.
Accompanied by the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) in the province, Lazaro Exposito, he was received at the institution by doctors Bladimir Moreno and Enrique Arango, director and deputy technical director, respectively, with whom he spoke for almost two hours about earthquake monitoring, the technology used for this purpose, the way the signal is received and analyses carried out.
The Cuban president asked about the danger of tsunamis in the area and the studies that have been done about it; the history of major earthquakes occurred in the east of the country; the characteristics of tectonic plates where recent seismic events have occurred; and measures taken to minimize the damages that a major earthquake could cause.
The first secretary of the PCC in the province pointed out that everyday communication with the population has been fundamental, which, he said, has acted with maturity and discipline.
Raul considered that the work done has been very good, urged to follow up on the psychological issues that trigger natural phenomena of this kind, and asked to continue emphasizing on respect for seismic building norms, both in state-made buildings and in those built by people on their own. He also advised to keep plans for facing disasters updated, which must be known to all of Santiago residents, and to continue studying the current situation in depth.
Before leaving the National Seismological Research Center, Raul congratulated its workers for the hard work they have carried out in the recent past to keep the population informed.