Released : Friday, October 12, 2007 7:47 PM
Intense rain over several days in Cuba's eastern region has forced
thousands of people to evacuate, cut off several municipalities and
caused damage to at least a thousand homes, authorities said Friday.
The government has declared a state of alert in the area and called on
the population to follow the instructions of the Civil Defense agency to
prevent loss of life.
In Santiago de Cuba province, uninterrupted rainfall for almost two
weeks has led to flooding in low-lying areas and caused rivers to swell,
prompting the evacuation of close to 5,000 people and damaging some 600
homes, local Civil Defense chief Luis Enrique Ibanez told state radio.
The water has damaged the road that links Santiago de Cuba with
Guantanamo province, where some 18,000 people remained cut off due to
the overflowing of Guantanamo River, official daily Juventud Rebelde
reported.
In Granma province, the media reported that 1,200 people were forced to
evacuate, although that figure could rise if the rainfall persists
because the reservoirs are at 92 percent capacity.
Authorities in Las Tunas province have begun to evacuate more than 1,000
people from at-risk areas near rivers and reservoirs, while in Holguin
the number of evacuees exceeds 2,000.
The rains have caused damage to crops, power cuts and the loss of
telephone service in the eastern region.
The showers are forecast to continue over the weekend in the central and
eastern parts of the island due to the presence of a low-pressure area
over the Caribbean.
http://www.macroworldinvestor.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=275224961
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