Over 1000 evacuated in central Cuba due to heavy rains

More than a thousand people have been evacuated in Cuba's central province of Villa Clara due to heavy rains that started Friday. Major Isidro Sanchez Alfonso, section head of National Civil Defense (NCD) in Villa Clara, said a total of 1,433 people were evacuated, and most of them were residents of the towns of Encrucijada, Sagua la Chica, Camajuani and Caibarien, local media sources reported Monday. The official said 1,354 of those evacuated went to stay with relatives or neighbors, and the rest were transferred to shelters. According to figures issued by the state-run Water Company, in the past 72 hours, as much as 12.5 to 32.7 cm of rain has fallen in parts of the province, with dams filled to 83.7 percent of their capacity after reaching 847 million cubic meters of water. Forecasts from the National Meteorology Institute, meanwhile, warn that rain will continue to fall in central Cuba. Cuba's civil defense agency is internationally acknowledged for its handling of extreme weather events and the subsequent lower rate of human loss and economic damage.