Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Mayabeque, Nov 9.- Cuba is full of daily heroism that magnifies the worth of our people. There are anonymous heroes who are at the foot of a furrow, in the hustle and bustle of a laboratory, hanging on a pole at the height of a transformer, or in a guard room; doing for Cuba where they are most useful, although sometimes very few know it.
The President of the National Defense Council, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, learned about these heroisms this Friday afternoon, while touring the municipalities of Quivicán and Batabanó, in Mayabeque, one of the three provinces most affected by the effects of Hurricane Rafael.
A few kilometers from reaching the first of these territories, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, stopped to talk with a group of workers from the Telecommunications Company, ETECSA, who, defying the midday sun, they were striving to restore the affected lines of communication.
“Looking good there, you are one of those who are going to give happiness to people,” he told them after being interested in the conditions in which they were doing their work and the attention they were receiving.
The Iiana Dimitrova Horticultural Research Institute was the first tour point this afternoon, in which the Cuban president was accompanied by the member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, Roberto Morales Ojeda.
According to the explanation offered by the director of the Center, Alicia de la Caridad Miranda, the main damage here is concentrated in four cultivation houses.
And although they have taken on the task of beginning the recovery immediately and then starting to sow, the damage affects the harvest and therefore the delivery commitments that will now have to be rescheduled.
This Friday afternoon, those same workers who execute and give life to the 19 research projects that are developed at the center, carried tree branches, leaves and the same amount of waste that Rafael had left behind as he passed through the facilities, because the recovery here, as they said, it has to be seen in every corner.
Intense are the recovery efforts also in areas of the Tres Hermanos Farm, belonging to the Socialist Cuba Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS), where the young producer Odenni Rodríguez Yanes has not wasted time in harvesting the affected products.
“It will not be the same yield, but it will give something,” said President Díaz-Canel during the exchange, in which he was able to learn that the most affected crops were cassava, banana, tomato and cabbage.
Now you have to move quickly with the cabbage, Odenni commented, because as soon as the sun begins to heat it it burns. And so, quickly, work is done today in these lands, because each product that is saved, as you well know, is one more that can reach the tables of families in these communities.
When speaking with members of the Municipal Defense Council, activated near the center of the municipality, the Cuban president was interested, among other topics, in the arrival of resources for recovery and the situation with the water supply.
Regarding that last matter, the president of the Provincial Defense Council, Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, who accompanied the Head of State throughout the tour, explained that engines that run on diesel have been activated, and six pipes will be used to bring water to the “La Salud” community, which is the most complicated.
The population, the president learned, has supported a lot in the collection of waste, which has been essential for everything to have a better image.
Díaz-Canel had spoken precisely with residents of the municipality shortly before. He explained to them about the arrival of brigades with workers from ETECSA and the Electric Company, as well as other actions that have been implemented to advance as soon as possible in the recovery.
The restoration of electrical service, he said, will be the most difficult to solve, because there are many fallen poles, but “we are going to recover,” he assured.
BATABANÓ: WHERE EVERYONE'S SUPPORT HAS BEEN VITAL
Batabanó was another of the municipalities affected by the inclemency of Hurricane Rafael and the President of the National Defense Council was also there on Friday afternoon to see first-hand the magnitude of the damage.
At the Signos Furniture and Miscellaneous Items Company, he was able to see the damage caused by the meteorological event on the light roof of the factory and on a part of the roof of the children's house that operates there.
Díaz-Canel arrived at the end of the route to the town of Surgidero de Batabanó, where the member of the Political Bureau and vice president of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa, was waiting for him: of the three thousand 38 people evacuated in the municipality, two thousand 946 were in this town, historically affected by severe flooding.
The Head of State thanked its inhabitants for the diligence with which they undertook the evacuation actions. Coupled with this, he valued that the work that has been done in the last year has allowed flood levels to be lower.
Now we are going above the cyclone, and the most important thing is this hurricane of work, he said.
The closing of the day was emotional: the heroic members of the Red Cross, who in the midst of the hurricane rescued people trapped in a landslide and put them safely away, were acknowledged this afternoon in Surgidero de Batabanó. To them the handshake of the President and the thanks of the people. (Granma Digital) (Photos: Revolución Studies)
