Cuban officials have staged crews in the eastern part of the country to help launch recovery efforts as soon as Hurricane Melissa moves out, President Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a message to the public, according to state newspaper Granma.
“There are already electricity brigades, water resources brigades, communications brigades, and construction brigades that will work together with the forces in each territory to recover from the damage,” Díaz-Canel said, noting the storm is “one of the strongest, most severe, or perhaps the strongest hurricanes to have passed through the national territory.”
“There will be a lot of work to do,” Diaz-Canel said, acknowledging the hurricane’s destructive potential. Still, he expressed confidence in Cuba’s “full capacity to recover in food production, in the reconstruction of homes that are destroyed or damaged,” as well as in the recovery of the economy.
More than 735,000 people had been evacuated in Cuba as of Tuesday night, the president said.
