After the tremors of the earthquakes, the challenge now is to repair damages 

The inhabitants of Pilón state that they have not experienced such a shocking event in decades. Photo: Mailenys Oliva Ferrales 

Pilon, Granma.— More than two days after the earthquakes that shook eastern Cuba -and with greater intensity in this coastal portion of southern Granma- Marileidy Nuñez Jimenez still looks scared.“I don't want to remember that. In more than 40 years that I have lived in this town, I have never experienced anything so shocking. Not even Hurricane Dennis did as much damage as these two earthquakes,” said, still in shock, this inhabitant of the community of Manta, whose house shows the atrocious imprint of the seismic events that not only destroyed her house, but also her peace of mind.The figures of the damages in that municipality - the most affected in Granma - also confirm this. According to Oslay Sánchez Aguilar, mayor of Pilón, more than 530 damages to houses and infrastructure of state entities had been reported to date, and 25 of them were total collapses.The leader also said that specialists from the Empresa Provincial de Servicios Técnicos y Arquitectos de la Comunidad de Granma (Provincial Enterprise of Technical Services and Architects of the Granma Community) have been summoned to evaluate, in a structural way, the situation of the eight existing buildings in the territory, as well as of Health and Education institutions.In this regard, a local television report stated that, of the 75 educational centers in Pilón, 41 suffered partial damages and eight schools are certified as non-functional, for which reason teaching activities will be resumed in adapted premises.For his part, Sánchez Aguilar pointed out that priority has also been given to people who cannot return to their homes, and the support of the Revolutionary Armed Forces has been provided for the placement of tents to serve as temporary protection for people affected by the seismological events.Several specialists and construction experts have also begun to arrive in this coastal municipality, in order to speed up the evaluation of damages in the residential sector, and the subsequent beginning of the recovery; in addition to the arrival of support brigades, among which are the young people from the University of Medical Sciences of Granma, who have joined the cleaning and debris collection work, among other tasks.In the rest of the province, work is also being carried out to evaluate the damages, which are mainly concentrated in the municipalities of Bartolomé Masó, Media Luna, Campechuela and Buey Arriba, although there are also damages in Niquero, Bayamo, Yara and Manzanillo.According to what Michel Tejeda Acuña, coordinator of Programs of the provincial government, explained to Granma, the recovery stage will be gradual and complex, due to the amount of damages registered in the territory, with more than 2,000 houses and some 70 state institutions damaged so far.