Tropical storm Oscar causes severe damage in the salt pans of Guantánamo.

Tropical storm Oscar, which entered Cuba last Sunday as a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, caused serious damage to the Salinera Company located in the municipality of San Antonio del Sur, Guantánamo.

"The passing of hurricane Oscar affected 50% of the industrial facilities of the salt company in San Antonio del Sur. The Macambo salt field was completely damaged," reported the X account of the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Cuba.

According to this source, "the salt workers provide all their support to the most affected population."

Access to salt, like most basic basket products, is a problem for the Cuban population.

Since the year 2023, difficulties in production, as well as shortcomings in transportation, have led to the Cuban family not having regular access to this product.

Even though the government has stated on several occasions that the warehouses are full, there are references that it imports salt from other countries, such as Spain.

As it passed through the province of Guantánamo, Oscar also left considerable losses in the already beleaguered agriculture of the country.

We would be talking about "almost all the ripe coffee" having fallen due to the rain and winds, to the point that a preliminary assessment states that 40,000 cans would have ended up on the ground, according to the testimony of Alvernis Veranes Favier, provincial delegate of Agriculture in the territory.

The banana plantations were affected by 70-80% in municipalities such as Maisí and Baracoa, while there are 200 hectares of destroyed tomato crops in the Caujerí Valley, in San Antonio del Sur.

In addition, the Cuban government reported that there are, preliminarily, more than a thousand homes damaged in various municipalities of the province of Guantánamo.

Hurricane Oscar made landfall in Baracoa on Sunday, October 20, around 5:50 PM, leaving behind shocking images in its wake.

With a preliminary count of six deceased, the situation remains critical, especially in the municipalities of San Antonio del Sur and Imías, which experienced unprecedented flooding.

The passage of this meteorological phenomenon through Cuban territory further intensified the complex situation the country has been facing since last Friday, when a general blackout occurred at noon, which still has not been fully resolved after more than 72 hours with the island in the dark.