Heavy rains have caused flooding in cities in central and eastern Cuba

As announced by the Cuban Meteorological Institute, due to a combination of a trough in the middle and upper levels of the troposphere over the Gulf of Mexico, intense rains have affected central and eastern Cuban provinces over the past 24 hours, a wet Low-level southerly flow and afternoon instability.

Due to this the rivers are in spate and many areas have been flooded.

According to information provided by meteorologist Elior Pilla on his Twitter account, between 2:00 am and 8:00 am this morning in eastern Cuba, significant accumulation of precipitation was reported in various places:

• Guaro, Holguin 118mm
• Boatswain, Santiago de Cuba 98 mm
• Mayari’s pine forest, Holguin 77mm
• Manzanillo, Granma 74mm.

Holguin journalist Emilio Rodríguez Pupo reported on his Facebook account the flooding of houses in the towns of Guaro, Juliana 3, Guayabo, Colorado, Juan Jorge Soto and Herrera.

He said the municipal defense council insisted that the most important thing was to preserve human life.

“They report a warehouse collapse in Nip, evacuation of resources in nearby centres. Engineering machines arranged to reach difficult places. Mayari dam pours more than 6 cubic meters of water per second ,” wrote the journalist.

“River and streams overflow their banks in Tercera Frente, Santiago de Cuba. It has been raining intermittently since Wednesday night. Saturated soil causes flooding in various cities in the east,” Cuban Television Information System journalist Lazaro Manuel Alonso told.

He reported that in Jiguani, Granma, the rivers are in spate and heavy rains continue.

The rise of the Contremestre river has already reached almost a meter above the bridge in this province.