Guantanamo.- The electric service is among those that suffered serious damage after Hurricane Oscar passed through Baracoa, and in its recovery, the solidarity help of other provinces is vital.
This is confirmed by Jorge Agustín Marrero Sánchez, who has been working tirelessly since October 28 with the Las Tunas linemen’s brigade to restore the damage caused by the hydrometeorological event that made landfall on October 21, with category 1 winds on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
This 61-year-old driver said that there is still much to do, they install fallen poles, damaged fibers and operate cranes, in a collective effort with his fellowslinemen and repairmen.
He says that it is his first time away from his province and that although he misses his family, he does not falter. He came to work with determination, and he highlights the warmth of the people who welcome him, who reward him with a cup of coffee, as well as a word of gratitude, in addition to the confidence transmitted to him by his co-workers, with experience of previous natural disasters.
In addition to repairing lines, they have carry out many tasks like replace transformer, pole assemblies, and although some works can be dangerous, they do it in compliance with appropriate security measures to return home in safety.
With them, there are also 18 brigades from other territories, including Camagüey, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and those from Guantánamo, who united in this noble cause have reestablished 93 percent of the service within the city center, according to preliminary data from Yulieski Ramírez Matos, Head of the Baracoa Defense Council.
They are currently working on the restoration of circuits three, six and eight, while maintaining circuits one and eight, and trying to overcome the limitations to turn on some circuits that have been off for more than fifteen days.
There are still homes with interruptions in Sabanilla, Cayo Güin, Mandinga, Jamal, Mosquitero, Mabujao and some in the Baracoa City, due to damaged transformer banks, which need to be replaced.
Of the 788 transformer banks, 545 were already energized, and 243 remain pending, which affects a total of six thousand 804 clients, mainly in the mountainous localities that they have not been able to reach.
75 destroyed poles have been registered and 60 have been replaced so far, while work continues in the most intricate areas such as Mandinga, where they have found a high number of fallen poles, he explained.
