In the midst of a complex epidemiological situation and in view of the proximity of the hurricane season, the exercise dubbed Meteoro 2021 is carried out, on its 35th anniversary, to strengthen the capacity to face natural, technological and health disasters, fundamentally the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and arboviruses.

During May 22 and 23, it is expected to increase the preparation and cohesion of the management bodies, analyze and define decisions and disaster risk reduction plans, as well as train the forces and the population in general, to participate in disaster response and recovery.

Lieutenant Colonel Ramón Martín Fragela, Chief of Civil Defense of the Military Region, stated that practical activities and actions will be developed to eliminate vulnerabilities (sanitation work, active investigations, outbreaks controls, isolations, solid waste collection, tree pruning, elimination of micro-dumps and leaks, and cleaning of pits, gutters, sewers and drains).

In exchange with the Civil Defense, it was learned that the 2021 hurricane season will be active, with predictions of 16 events (tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes) throughout the North Atlantic Basin.

According to information from the Forecast Center of the Institute of Meteorology, eight of these phenomena could reach the category of hurricanes and there is an 85% probability of damage, at least due to a tropical cyclone. Meanwhile, the possibility of damage from hurricanes is moderate (45%).

Major General Ramón Pardo Guerra, chief of the National Civil Defense General Staff, specified that Meteoro 2021 “will be a different exercise, due to the mandatory observance of protection measures against the pandemic, but even so we must do everything what is within our reach and be prepared to respond to a tropical cyclone or other disaster event that occurs, taking into account the teachings of our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, when he urged us to always anticipate the worst scenarios."