Successful Meteoro 2018 Drill Throughout Cuba

Once again, Cubans gave proof of their capacity to prevent and deal with natural, technological, epidemics, and other disasters

In the midst of an awesome mourning for the plane
crash in Havana last Friday, Cubans demonstrated their moral strength and unity in the 2018 Meteoro Exercise, which demonstrated the country’s ability to cope with natural disasters.

An example of the capacity to prevent and deal with natural, technological, epidemics, and other disasters was the 2018 Meteoro Popular Exercise in the province of Santiago de Cuba, which, as throughout the country, ended yesterday.

The President and Vice President of the Provincial Defense Council, Lázaro Expósito Canto and Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, respectively, toured areas that should be listed by the working groups in the event of a potential disaster, and where insurance should be guaranteed for each case.

Among these sites was a hospital deployed in the city, where the multiple health services available in the event of a contingency and the availability of trained personnel for assistance were noted, even in the most difficult conditions.

The Juan Sáez dam, the largest in Las Tunas, with a total filling capacity of 112 million cubic meters, began discharging water today, in compliance with the hydrological forecast program approved in the province.

The reservoir, located in the northeastern municipality of Jesús Menéndez, stores 80 million cubic meters of water, which is the limit established for this dam, said Mirtha García Rojas, delegate of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources in the territory.

Hundreds of people mobilized in Production and Defense Zones and Brigades today undertook, in an agile manner, sanitation tasks in workplaces and communities on the Isle of Youth to minimize vulnerabilities to disaster situations.

Among the actions of Meteoro 2018 in the province of Cienfuegos was to increase the permanent surveillance of its six reservoirs, which to date report a 96.5 percent filling when the rainy season in Cuba has just begun.

A practical exercise of the rescue groups, complex and light for
earthquakes, focused the preparation actions in the municipality of Pinar del Rio as part of Meteoro 2018, for the strengthening of the province’s capacities in the event of disasters.

The 2018 Meteoro demonstrated to the Guantanamo people what it is possible to do from the normal stage to save human lives, during a combined evacuation, rescue and salvage action in the face of a hypothetical medium intensity earthquake.

In all 10 municipalities, the population was actively involved in sanitation and cleaning in residential areas, particularly in those territories that are still recovering from the damage caused by Hurricanes Matthew and Irma, in October 2016 and September 2017, respectively.

The capacity of the province of Sancti Spíritus to face possible natural, technological or health disasters was put to the test Sunday on the second and last day of Meteoro 2018.

Under the slogan “Let´s save, fires are preventable”, Ciego de Ávila strengthened fire prevention this weekend with one of the most successful practical exercises in the province’s history.

Federico Hernandez, president of the Provincial Defense Council, insisted that day by day the people of Granma must be in charge of being better workers and guarantee the protection of the life and resources of the economy under all circumstances.

During the drill in Villa Clara, the experiences derived from Hurricane Irma in this central territory were taken into account and specific measures were adopted in the seven coastal municipalities and communities of the northern coast of the province.

The cleaning of sections of the rivers that cross the city was one of the main activities carried out in the context of the drill, during this weekend in the province of Camagüey.

As usual every year, the population participated in the pruning of trees, cleaning of gullies and other actions of sanitation and fumigation against vectors.