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Hurricane Ian Response: Resident Coordinator's Office Situation Report No. 04 (29 September 2022)

Países
Cuba
Fuentes
UNCT Cuba
Fecha de publicación

This report has been prepared by the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Cuba. It covers the period from 12pm on 28 September to 12pm on 29 September (local time).

Summary

• After the passage of devastating Hurricane Ian, the entire population of the two most affected provinces are still without power.

• Damage to housing is significant. So far, in just three municipalities of Pinar del Río, some 30,000 houses have been damaged. The rest of the affected areas are still being assessed.

• Basic social services infrastructure has been severely damaged.

• The death toll has risen to three following Ian’s passage.

• In addition to the serious damage to agriculture, infrastructure for crop production and retail food markets have been severely affected.

• Some 5,000 people remain evacuated in Artemisa, Pinar del Río and Mayabeque.

Overview of the situation

The situation remains complex throughout western Cuba following the impact of Ian. The difficulties generated by the collapse of the national power grid are beginning to ease with the restoration of power in some parts of the country but continue in the worst-affected provinces.

Preliminary data indicate severe damage to housing. Images from national media show houses without roofs or windows and others completely destroyed. Many families have lost much of their property, clothing and food.

The damage to agriculture is quite severe, including serious damage to the infrastructure of farms, cooperatives and retail food markets. There has been a significant loss of many liters of milk, a staple food supplement for children and the elderly throughout the country.

Losses in tobacco, the main source of livelihood for thousands of people in Pinar del Río, and one of the country’s key exports, accounting for 10.4 per cent of the total export of goods, are described as "disastrous" and compromise the start of the next harvest, which would begin in the second half of October.

Both Pinar del Río and Artemisa provinces are still without electricity, which affects other services, such as water supply, telecommunications, food production and distribution, and the sale of fuel, among others.

Damage to health and education infrastructure is very severe. More than 70 educational centers in Pinar del Río have been damaged, more than half of them quite significantly. Alternatives are being developed for the restart of the school year in hardest hit municipalities.