Cuba rescues residents stranded by floodwaters in wake of Hurricane Melissa

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RIO CAUTO, Cuba (Reuters) -Cuba worked on Friday to rescue residents still stranded by unprecedented floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, including a flooded river that had cut off one of the country’s most important east-west thoroughfares.

The Rio Cauto overflowed its banks shortly after Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest storms on record to make landfall in the Caribbean, slammed into Cuba as a dangerous Category 3 hurricane, bringing upwards of 15 inches of rain to some areas of the eastern end of the island.

Emergency workers on Friday waded waist deep in wetsuits and used boats and military vehicles to rescue residents from the still-rising waters of the country’s longest river.

The floodwaters had cut off a principal route connecting the capital Havana in western Cuba with the eastern cities of Santiago, Bayamo and Guantanamo, forcing motorists and rescue workers to seek alternate routes to the north.

Rio Cauto resident Eduardo Verdecia, 83, said he and his family had expected the river to subside but continuing rains, plus runoff from nearby mountains and a fast-rising reservoir had surprised them.

“When night fell we thought it would go down, but look at it now, and it’s still raining,” Verdecia said, indicating chocolate waters that had inundated his house to near roof level.

“We’ve had floods before but nothing like this. My house had never flooded.”

Authorities said on local radio that upwards of 800 people had been evacuated from riverside towns and warned that the river could keep rising, but said the reservoir dam would not burst.

Cuba has reported no deaths from Melissa, which had begun to dissipate in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday after sowing devastation across much of Jamaica, drenching Haiti and leaving at least 50 dead.

Across eastern Cuba, authorities prior to the storm mobilized a massive evacuation effort, moving 735,000 people to shelters outside the hurricane’s predicted path. Tourists along Cuba’s northern keys were also relocated to inland hotels.

Recovery from the severe flooding to infrastructure and crop damage will be complicated by a dire economic crisis that has already led to shortages of food, fuel, and medicine across the island.

Officials said several countries including Venezuela and United Nations agencies had offered aid to the communist-run nation.

The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it was also ready to offer to help those affected by Hurricane Melissa in Cuba – a close neighbor but long-time foe of the United States.

Cuba’s deputy director of U.S. affairs Johana Tablada said on Friday that the administration of President Donald Trump had not yet followed up with details.

“The U.S. has not made any concrete offers, nor has it responded to the questions we raised regarding the announcement made by the secretary of state,” Tablada told reporters in Havana.

(Reporting by Mario Fuentes and Alien Fernandez in Rio Cauto, additional reporting and writing by Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)