Six days have passed since Hurricane Rafael ravaged the western region of Cuba, and a mere 2% of Artemisa province has had its electricity restored. According to Monday's report from the National Defense Council of Civil Defense, the situation with the power supply remains "extremely challenging," despite the deployment of repair crews from other areas to assist with restoration efforts.
The hurricane's powerful winds left hundreds of electrical poles toppled, and it severely damaged several high-voltage towers, rated at 220,000 and 110,000 volts, along the Havana-Artemisa highway, reducing them to twisted metal wreckage. State-run media have shared images on social media illustrating the scale of the destruction.
Widespread Power Outage
For a week, the residents of Artemisa have been enduring the absence of electricity, following a widespread blackout that began on Wednesday at 2:48 PM. The Electric Union attributed this outage to the hurricane's fierce winds, even though Rafael had not yet made landfall in Cuba at that time.
Severe Impact on Infrastructure and Agriculture
Artemisa bore the brunt of Rafael's wrath, suffering extensive damage to homes, crops, and infrastructure. As for telecommunications, the fixed-line network is functioning at 61.2%, while mobile services are operating at merely 34.4% capacity.
Preliminary assessments indicate that 15,453 homes have been damaged, a number expected to rise as evaluations continue. In the agricultural sector, 15,192 hectares of crops have been affected, with only approximately 992 hectares showing signs of recovery. So far, around 546 tons of food have been salvaged from the devastation.