The province of Pinar del Río, an area that did not experience the direct impact of Hurricane Rafael, remains in darkness following the failure of several power lines serving its municipalities. If this situation is not resolved, the start of the school year, scheduled for Monday, November 11, will be postponed.
Thus spoke the authorities from Pinar del Río to highlight a critical situation in that province in western Cuba.
"Classes will start on Monday, the 11th in #PinardelRío IF the electricity service has been restored," wrote the secretary of the Communist Party in that territory, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, making the resumption of the Cuban academic year conditional.
The Provincial Government of Pinar del Río explained on its Facebook profile that the solution to the power outage affecting the province lies in resolving "the issues from Havana to Mariel and from this location to Artemisa, in order to connect with our province, which is still a work in progress."
One alternative was suggested by the Technical Director of the Electric Company of Pinar del Río, Iosvany Siles, who stated that the province could receive electricity service through two 110 KV lines. This practice has been implemented on other occasions, citing as an example the year 2008, when the province took several months to recover the high voltage line (220 KV) due to the impacts of Gustav and Ike; however, service was ensured through the 110 KV lines.
The authorities clarified that "the 220 kV connection provides the highest security and quality of service; efforts will be made to restore it as soon as possible, but in the meantime, the 110 kV connections are the available option for access to the National Electric Power System."
Finally, they expressed that the people of Pinar del Río will have to wait, as it is an extremely complex, careful, and very risky job for those involved. The damages were not insignificant.
Last Thursday, Cuba's Ministry of Education (MINED) announced that classes will resume on November 11 in the western and central provinces.
In a statement published on Facebook, MINED explained that the resumption of classes takes into account the recovery stage of the provinces of Mayabeque, Artemisa, Havana, Pinar del Río, and the special municipality of Isle of Youth, as well as the return to normalcy from Matanzas to Ciego de Ávila.
Hurricane Rafael, with winds of up to 175 km/h, caused the collapse of six high-voltage towers on the Havana-Artemisa highway, further complicating the restoration of electrical service in the country.
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