Hurricane Rafael leaves minimal damage along the Malecón in Havana

Hurricane Rafael left minimal damage along the Malecón in Havana as it passed through the Cuban capital.

Carlos Espinosa Betancourt, the administrator of the Facebook group 'Maravilloso Malecón', shared a photo of the avenue within several blocks of El Vedado.

"It seems that there were very few damages in this area. I hope that for the rest of the city and the country, the impact was also minimal, and above all, that there were no casualties," he said.

The image shows a stretch of avenue between streets B and C, which typically floods when there is bad weather.

Just a few hours earlier, workers from the Ministry of Transportation had to "race" to fill in a huge hole in the street after residents reported the danger it posed due to the imminent arrival of the hurricane.

"The repair work carried out in recent hours has been successfully completed, in my opinion, and the risk in that regard for our area has been eliminated," announced Espinosa Betancourt.

Once the works were completed, several users pointed out that the repairs should have been carried out much earlier and not right before a cyclone.

Havana was hit by the right side of Rafael, also known as the "dirty side" of the storm, which is considered the most intense area of the hurricane, bringing strong winds, torrential rains, and dangerous surf.

This increased the risk of disasters in the city due to the poor condition of the housing.

Although it ultimately did not come very close to the province, it affected numerous urban areas, causing severe flooding in neighborhoods located in low-lying areas, structural collapses, and necessitating the evacuation of thousands of people.

The winds from Rafael uprooted large trees and carried away the roofs of numerous homes and state buildings. Its intensity exceeded the drainage capacity of several neighborhoods, particularly in Centro Habana and La Habana Vieja, which quickly became flooded.

Havana, like the other provinces in western Cuba, will remain without electricity. The Electric Company stated succinctly that the population will have to wait for an assessment of the transmission lines before they can begin establishing microsystems.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Energy and Mines revealed that the restoration of electricity service in the area will be "a slow process."