Diaz-Canel Speeds Recovery Priorities after Tornado

During the Council of Ministers meeting held Wednesday night to assess the recovery progress after the passage of the tornado on Sunday, the president called to use all possible alternatives to solve the issue of housing, including to adapt premises to shelter those who lost their house.

He also insisted -according to published summaries- that they should specify in detail those people who remain without a place to spend the night, in order to give them a solution.

Diaz-Canel also reiterated the urgency that leaders and authorities remain with the people affected by the tornado, ‘supporting, giving information, removing obstacles and accompanying them.’

More than 1,200 houses suffered damages on Sunday, more than half of them completely destroyed, by the tornado that hit areas of Regla, Guanabacoa, Diez de Octubre and San Miguel del Padron municipalities.

Minister of Finance and Prices, Meisi Bolaños informed at that meeting that the State Budget will finance 50 percent of the prices for construction materials that are sold to those people affected by total or partial collapses of their homes.

Low income families affected will be given materials free of charge.

Regarding electricity service, one of the worst hit by the tornado, Minister of Energy and Mines Raul Garcia stated that restoration exceeds 70 percent in the municipalities of Diez de Octubre, Guanabacoa and Regla.

Participants in the meeting also addressed cleaning debris, return of students to the schools damaged by the tornado, distribution of mattresses and food to the affected people and the situation of those injured.

The meteorological event left four dead and about 200 injured, most of them were already discharged.

Authorities led by President Diaz-Canel have confirmed that, as is usual in Cuba facing similar tragedies, no one will be abandoned to their fate.