Hurricane Irma in Cuba: damages and recovery in figures

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 29 (ACN) Hurricane Irma, the strongest ever registered in the Atlantic, wreaked havoc through all the Cuban northern coast between September 7 and 10, leaving 10 people dead and an undetermined amount of material losses.

The preparations undertaken by the Cuban people and government allowed them to minimize the losses, but the strength of the hurricane was felt throughout most of the country.

The main damages were reported in the central Cuban provinces of Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Sancti Spíritus and Villa Clara, but others like Matanzas and Havana were also hit extensively.

The National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) along the three chiefs of the strategic regions the country is divided into, reported the following figures to the Cuban National Defense president:

Close to 1.9 million Cubans were evacuated to safer places. Up to date 11,689 people remain in shelters, receiving state support of food and other first need items in nine provinces.

Over 158 thousand houses were affected: 14,657 were totally destroyed and 16,646 suffered large damages. Also, over 23 thousand lost their roofs, and over 100 thousand suffered some damages on them.

The National Power Grid suffered major damages in most of the county. Some 4,000 poles were knocked down by the winds, close to 3 500 kilometers of power lines went down. Out of the 8 largest power plants, half of them had to halt due to the severity of the damages. Two weeks later, 99.9 percent of the country had the power restored.

In telecommunications, a quarter of a million landlines were affected, as well as 1,471 internet lines. 27 phone towers fell along 4,764 poles. Today, 85.3 percent of these services are already restored.

Over 537 kilometers of roads also were damaged. The main affectations were on the over the sea roads that connect the main island to the keys on the north, but traffic was already restored to the main tourist poles in this area

In the health sector, over 980 hospitals, clinics and doctor´s offices were damages, out of which 289 are already repaired. Despite of the severity of the affectations, health services were kept at all times.

In agriculture, 466 poultry farms were destroyed totally or partially. Three quarters of them are fully operational now. Over 95,000 hectares of crops were affected, of which 35,000 are recovered. In most provinces, farmers are planting short term crops to palliate the shortages of food along the country.

More than 338,000 hectares of sugar cane also suffered from the hurricane, and thanks to the hard work of the industry, over half of them are already recovered. Forty percent of all Cuban sugar mills were severely damaged as well.

Other sectors that are of paramount importance to the Cuban economy, such as tourism and industry, report heavy losses.