HAVANA: Three people died and thousands evacuated after heavy rains hit eastern and central Cuba, authorities said on Monday.
Heavy downpours had started on Thursday and subsided by Monday evening, but rescue operations were still underway in many eastern provinces, including Camaguey, Granma, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba and Las Tunas, and in Sancti Spiritus.
According to the Camaguey Civil Defense, a fifty-six-year-old man had been found dead in a dam and the circumstances of death of another 67-year-old are being investigated, AFP reported.
Rains cause evacuations
In Granma, about 7,500 people had been evacuated to safer places. In nearby Las Tunas, nearly 1,730 acres of crops were badly damaged.
The authorities in Granma had reported on Friday the death of a 60-year-old man from drowning.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel vowed on Sunday that the rescue operations are underway and no one would be left helpless.
Rains have damaged roads, bridges, and the sewage system, and trains heading east from the capital city of Havana have been canceled.
