The visual artist from Guantanamo, Daniel Ross Diéguez, shared with his nearly 7,000 Facebook followers his harrowing experience during the false alarm about the dam break in San Antonio, his hometown, triggered by the heavy rains from Hurricane Oscar.
“Many trucks started to turn around in a rush, signaling frantically. That was the first warning. Vehicles from ETECSA, churches, workers from other provinces, maybe even embassies, were speeding by. I recall a jeep packed with people, and then we started to worry. Cars were packed to the brim. We realized something bad had happened when a car full of people stopped to deliver the news,” he recounted in a live Facebook broadcast.
Ross Diéguez explained that they were in Baitiquirí, just two kilometers from San Antonio del Sur, a town of 26,457 residents. Everyone had to turn back, and they began picking up people along the way, including a young man who was visibly shaken. They warned everyone they encountered on the road, leading many to flee towards the mountains with their children.
Need for Better Early Warning Systems
Daniel Ross Diéguez criticized the absence of an early warning system that could have averted this chaos. He advocated for communicators to be placed at the dam and in the town to alert residents promptly, especially in San Antonio, one of the municipalities hardest hit by Hurricane Oscar. “Install a communicator at the dam and another in the town. This whole stressful situation could have been avoided. We went through a very rough time,” he emphasized.
Determined to help, he plans to return to San Antonio on Saturday to personally deliver numerous donations he has received, convinced that immediate action is critical before Sunday.
Community Rallies Around Affected Areas
The dire circumstances in the Guantanamo municipalities of San Antonio del Sur and Imías have sparked a wave of solidarity. One such act is from Wilmer Fernández, a young Cuban who posted a message offering his personal vehicle, a Moskvitch, to transport donations to San Antonio del Sur on Friday for those impacted by Hurricane Oscar.
The devastation left by the cyclone has led to ongoing weather alerts in the region, with persistent heavy rainfall in the northeastern part of the country, particularly in the provinces of Holguín and Guantánamo, where severe flooding has been reported since early Friday morning.
The Cuban Institute of Meteorology’s Forecast Center issued a note explaining that the recent frequent rains are linked to a frontal trough and the instability of a tropical wave to the south of the area. Authorities have announced evacuations in flooded towns, including Baracoa and Cabacú, where raging rivers like the Miel River have overflowed, flooding streets and worsening an already critical situation.
In the early hours of Friday, intense rain continued to batter Cuba’s eastern region, particularly in Baracoa, exacerbating the severe floods in an area already deeply affected by Hurricane Oscar.