Rescue brigades evacuated more than 100 people early Sunday morning in the El Mango area of the Río Cauto municipality, as part of ongoing operations that have been taking place for four consecutive days due to the intense flooding affecting the territory.
According to the provincial channel CNC TV Granma, the Civil Defense teams and the Army have been working continuously to ensure the safety of residents in the most vulnerable areas.
These efforts focused on the community of El Mango, one of the critical points identified by local authorities.
The rains have caused flooding in several areas of the municipality, prompting the evacuation of dozens of families to safety centers.
According to the cited source, evacuation and protection operations for the population will continue as long as adverse weather conditions persist, as clarified by the provincial media.
In a subsequent television report by CNC TV Granma, residents along the Cauto River's banks stated that the water level had not reached such heights since Hurricane Flora in 1963, which is regarded as one of the most devastating in Cuba's history.
The report itself indicated that in the province of Granma, approximately 16,000 people are accounted for in evacuation centers, while more than 100,000 have been hosted in the homes of family, friends, or neighbors, as part of the protection system implemented by local authorities in response to the flooding.
Before the arrival of Hurricane Melissa, the authorities of the regime had planned a massive evacuation in the eastern part of the country due to the imminent approach of the cyclone.
According to figures released by the Presidency of Cuba, the displacement of around 650,000 people has been planned: approximately 258,573 in Santiago de Cuba, 69,000 in Holguín, 139,914 in Guantánamo, 72,000 in Las Tunas, and 110,000 in Granma province, who were to seek shelter in evacuation centers or in the homes of relatives and friends.
In the case of Granma, local authorities reported that there were 98 identified critical areas and that it was necessary to protect about 110,000 people, which represents approximately 15% of the provincial population.
Of that number, 66,000 would be relocated to designated evacuation centers, while the rest would remain in the homes of relatives or neighbors.
As part of the preventive measures, the Ministry of Transport announced a special railway operation to evacuate isolated residents due to flooding in the Río Cauto popular council, in coordination with the authorities of Las Tunas and Granma.
According to the official report published on social media, a train originating in Camagüey departed at 10:00 a.m. heading towards Jobabo and continued its journey with five additional cars to Guamo, considered the epicenter of the operation.
However, during the return journey to Las Tunas, an incident occurred that marked one of the most tense days of the operation.
The locomotive 52554, with thirteen cars and over 2,600 passengers on board, encountered a flooded section where an erosion caused by the rising river resulted in the fourth and fifth cars uncoupling, dividing the train into two sections: one led by the locomotive and four cars that managed to move forward, and another with nine cars that remained halted with dozens of passengers on board.
The Cuban Railway Union (UFC) and the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, later confirmed that there was no derailment or injuries, although they described the incident as a "situation of extreme complexity" due to the water level and the distance separating the two trains.
"It was not a railway accident, but a difficult situation that was managed by everyone," the state entity stated in a statement published on its social media.
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