Four people reported dead. More than 215,000 people and 158,680 animals evacuated. Evaluation of losses continues

WHILE it is still not possible to definitively quantify the magnitude of the damages left in the wake of Hurricane Charley, preliminary evaluations indicate considerable harm done to the electric system and housing.

According to a spokesman for the National General Staff of the Civil defense, the following deaths were reported: in Havana province, Jesús Rosado Méndez, of Alquízar (when a palm tree fell on his house and it collapsed); Ivá Núñez Díaz, of Güira de Melena (when a building collapsed); Juan José Figueroa Alonso, of Mariel (drowned) and Jesús Suárez Sanz, of San Antonio de los Baños, (when a tobacco shed collapsed), while five people were reported injured in the capital, one of them seriously.

More than 215,000 people were evacuated from the most dangerous areas, of which only 35,749 were housed in shelters, given that the rest went to the houses of relatives, neighbors and friends, showing once again the spirit of solidarity of the Cuban people in times of catastrophe.

Efforts to repair damage to high-tension wires, posts, cables and transformers - essential materials to reestablish electric service to the city of Havana, the province of Havana and Pinar del Río Province, are being checked daily by representatives of the country’s leadership, the Ministry of Basic Industry and the National Electric Company at every level.

On Sunday, Víctor Puentes Monto, director of Nacional Regulation, told Juventud Rebelde that "in the case of the city of Havana, the provincial Electric Compnay director, Rosell Guerra, informed that of the city’s 224 circuits, 159 now have electricity. The other 65 are pending."

By 7 a.m. Saturday, some 10,381 houses had been affected by Charley’s passing, and 383 of them had totally collapsed, according to Juan Carlos Cruz, provincial director of the Unit of Housing Investment in Havana.

The water supply situation has improved within the last 24 hours, according Alfredo Pérez, provincial delegate of the Ministry of Hydraulic Resources in Havana. All water sources were reestablished in the eastern section of the city, some in the south, and in the municipality of Cotorro, he told JR. The most critical problems are in the central-western area, he said, given that the electricity was yet to be reestablished for the Sur, El Rincón and Los Meireles reservoirs.

In the Province of Havana, there were at least 989 buildings that were totally destroyed, and 1,020 partially destroyed, and 9,000 other houses suffered damage. In Pinar del Río, Havana Province and the city of Havana, some 502 schools were damaged.