September 20
We received an update from the Diocese of Matanzas after Hurricane Irma. They seem to be okay, and they told us that the San Miguel de los Banos church was secured prior to the storm and did not sustain any damage as a consequence of the hurricane. In speaking with our Cuban contacts who have driven the island following the hurricane, it looks like the areas hardest hit were the dioceses of Santa Clara and Ciego de Avila (the middle of the island), where Irma was a category 5 when it hit that portion of the island.
September 11
Hurricane Irma rode along much of the northern coast of the island until turning north for the Florida keys. We are aware that some Catholic churches were damaged in the dioceses of Holguin, Camaguey, Ciego de Avila, and Santa Clara, all of which cover some portion of the northern coast of Cuba.
One Archbishop (from Camaguey-located in the center of the island) wrote us this morning and told us that in his archdiocese only one small mission chapel was completely destroyed while a half dozen others sustained some damage. He had no electricity but was able to get a generator working to send an email to those of us in his network. He told us that he does not yet have any news from our friends in Matanzas. Presumably their power has also been wiped out, and it will take a while to restore. Judging from the radar, it looks like Pinar del Rio was not in the Hurricane’s path.
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