October 31, 2025 | Dalena Reporters Cuba worked on Friday to rescue residents still stranded by unprecedented floodwaters after Hurricane Melissa struck the eastern part of the island, including a flooded main river that cut off a primary east-west thoroughfare. Authorities reported that the Río Cauto had overflowed its banks shortly after the hurricane made landfall, inundating riverside towns and severing the vital road link between Havana and Santiago de Cuba.
The storm — categorized as a major hurricane when it hit Cuba — delivered more than 15 inches of rain in some areas, prompting emergency services to deploy boats and military vehicles to evacuate people trapped in flooded homes. Some rescuers were wading waist-deep in water suits to reach isolated communities.
At one flooded riverside town in the Río Cauto basin, an 83-year-old resident, Eduardo Verdecia, described how the water rose to nearly the roof of his home: “We’ve had floods before but nothing like this. My house had never flooded,” he said.
Government officials said more than 800 people had been evacuated so far from riverside towns, while emphasising that the reservoir dam upstream remained intact and officials were monitoring the situation closely.
Earlier, Cuban authorities had evacuated 735,000 people in eastern provinces before Melissa’s arrival, making one of the largest pre-landfall moves in the country’s history.
While no deaths have been officially reported in Cuba as a direct result of the hurricane, the island now begins the complex task of recovery amid ongoing economic pressures and shortages of essential goods. International aid offers have come in from countries such as Venezuela and from U.N. agencies, while the U.S. State Department said it stood ready to assist, although no detailed follow-up has been confirmed.
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