Hurricane Irma: Cuba tries to recover as floods persist in northern coastal area

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Cuba begins its recovery efforts after Hurricane Irma swept over its north-east coast. The island's capital and surrounding areas suffered heavy rains and flooding. But amazingly, no deaths have been reported so far. CGTN's Michael Voss is in Havana with more.

Hurricane Irma may have moved on to Florida but it hasn't left Cuba behind. Here in Havana- conditions deteriorated overnight. And by Sunday morning, the capitol was being pounded by seven to nine meter waves. The sea water has penetrated several blocks from the coast. Leaving an entire neighborhoods underwater. While the whole city has been without electricity for the past 24-hours.

YARLO SANCHEZ CARPENTER "It's been a huge catastrophe, my home and my business, everything is ruined. I'm a self-employed carpenter, I tried to raise things but the water came too fast and too high. Everything is wet."

MAYDA VIEL RESIDENT "This is terrible, our homes our furniture. Now we must wait until the water comes down to recover what's been flooded and put them out to dry."

The police have closed the seafront boulevard, the Malecon. But some young people who can't remember previous hurricanes, risking their lives playing in the water unaware of how dangerous it could be.

MICHAEL VOSS HAVANA The winds have finally started to ease and people are coming out into the streets to access the damage and try an unblock the drains. But the waves are still pounding the seafront and it could take some time before the floods recede.

Hurricane Irma is the most powerful storm to hit Cuba since the 1930's. In those regions which took a direct hit, from its destructive hurricane force winds-- along with driving rain and storm surges, the damage is more severe.

Three of the central northern provinces, Vida Clara, Ciego de Avila, and Camaguey have all suffered wide -spread structural damage to homes and businesses, with winds uprooting trees and knocking out power lines.

The storm surges left the fishing community of Caibarien underwater with sea penetrating half a kilometer from the coast. Crops have also been damaged with Irma dropping between 100 and 200 millimeters of rain in places but the full extent of the damage as yet to emerge. Michael Voss CGTN.