According to information from the Presidency of Cuba, half a million inhabitants of Havana, 25% of its population, continue without access to water following the passage of Hurricane Rafael last Wednesday. The Executive's statement indicated that almost a week after the impact of the Category 3 cyclone, 27.8% of residents in the capital still lack water supply.
In contrast, it was reported that 96.14% of the inhabitants of Havana already have their electricity service restored. However, in the province of Artemisa, where the hurricane made landfall on November 6, only 2% of the population has electricity. In that area, mobile phone coverage only reaches 34.4%, and there have been 15,453 homes reported with damage, ranging from partial to total collapses.
Regarding agriculture in Artemisa, 15,192 hectares of crops are affected, with only 1,000 hectares recovered so far. The hurricane wreaked havoc in the region with winds of up to 185 km/h and heavy rains of up to 200 mm. The country's electrical system collapsed, although connections are slowly being restored in various areas.
Authorities have indicated that the electrical reconnection is underway, although prolonged outages and instability in electricity supply persist in several parts of the island due to the passage of Rafael.
