CAMAGÜEY. - Long time will happen so that the Cubans, settlers of the Caribbean islands and of the southwestern area of the North American state of the Florida, could forget the step along our territories of the hurricane Irma, not only for the ravages that it caused us, but also for the lives that it snatched.
Considered by the specialists as the most powerful arisen in the Atlantic Ocean about whom one knows, Irma tore the small islands of the Caribbean Sea apart, devastating some of them like Barbuda and Antigua, which are today fields of desolation and death, and not less it did with the Cuban archipelago and the southwestern coast of the Florida, coming to the latter territory with a force of hurricane category 2 and strong rains then to flog with winds of tropical thunderstorm the state of Georgia and bordering areas.
In its transit for the Minor Antilles, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Haiti, Irma had left until now not less than 24 dead persons, while in Florida, where about 6 million persons were evacuated,there are5 deceased persons and several missing persons.
With Cuba, the hurricane with woman's name made a special effort devastating practically the whole country, where only three provinces, of the 14, and the special municipality Isla de la Juventud, did not get the direct impact of hurricane-force winds, of tropical thunderstorm and severe coastal floods, like the suffered by the Cuban capital which waters penetrated deeply, especially in the area of the well-known levee of Havana.
Irma arrived at the national territory in Baracoa, in the oriental end of the country, with winds of up to 250-kilometer hour and came with its impact up to Artemisa, in the western region, where it beat with winds of tropical thunderstorm and severe penetration of the sea.
Although the transit of the hurricane by Cuba was along the north coast, the radio of action of the winds with category 4 of its eye affected part of the national territory and those of tropical thunderstorm, up to 120 kilometers per hour, they lashed the rest of the country, causing consideration ravages.
In his message to the Cuban, the president Raúl Castro affirmed that the damages to the economy of the country are so large that they are still impossible to calculate, concentrating most of them in the nationalelectro-energetic system, the housing fund (thousands of houses were destroyed entirely or partially) and in the agriculture, which production and cropsof food and vegetables sufferedconsiderable affectations in thousands of hectares of cultivation.
Important tourist facilities located in keys of the north coast as well as the called stone-ways which communicate them with firm ground, suffered Irma's dashing, although it can be affirmed that the hotels of these places, as well as the rest of the facilities and the services that give it vitality, they will be ready to receive the high period of visitors, which last year it already exceeded four millions of those who arrived and the current one goes for this number or more.
Also in Cuba, had to be sorry the loss of human lives, with ten deceased, a part of which it obeyed that they did not observe the conduct established by the Civil Defense for the protection of the persons, included the denial to be evacuated of the areas or places of danger.
Before the distressing panorama, in spite of the preventive measurements adopted with advance, the Cubans are not going to cry to the wall of the lamentations, but already, since Irma's last drizzle, we throw ourselves with the contest decided of the people and all the available resources of the State, to recover, to staunch the wounds and to reach the firm intention of constructing a prosperous and sustainable socialism, like that, we have proposed.
We are grateful for the samples of solidarity that from all the parts of the world come to us, that of the governments, some of which promised us help, those of many institutions and organizations and those of affectionate friends who declare themselves along with us in these difficult moments and of arduous work.
The unity of all the Cubans will be the principal fortitude to put on top us to these hard times that come, our resistance capacity has demonstrated that we can go out forward before the most adverse risks, no person will remain at his luck and with the example of our historical leader Fidel Castro and his unbreakable faith in the victory, we will conquer the promissory future that we are already constructing.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez