Hurricane Sandy Raised Risk Awareness in Eastern Cuba

Hurricane Sandy Raised Risk Awareness in Eastern Cuba
By Patricia Grogg
SANTIAGO DE CUBA , Aug 10 2013 (IPS)

Nine months after Hurricane Sandy, the worst disaster to hit this city
in eastern Cuban in decades, local residents say they are now better
prepared for catastrophes.

"We have more information now, and more awareness of what happened,
which was very hard to accept," 31-year-old musician Melly Álvarez, who
lives in the hard-hit centre of Santiago, told IPS.

"We never thought something like this could happen to us. Since Sandy we
keep alert to meteorological warnings and we take precautions, to avoid
further surprises," she said.

Experts say every city in this Caribbean island nation should take
precautions against hurricanes, especially places like Santiago de Cuba,
which is in mountainous terrain and has densely-populated residential
buildings.

"Education must be stepped up in parts of the country that don't suffer
these things frequently or with great intensity, to increase awareness
of the risks," meteorologist José Rubiera said in a recent interview
with IPS.

The collapse of an adjacent building caused serious damage to Álvarez's
house, still only partially rebuilt despite a huge effort by her family.
"At first there was corruption in the distribution of materials, but the
authorities took measures and the reconstruction process was
accelerated. It is more organised now," she said.

According to official figures, 15,888 housing units were completely
destroyed and 22,000 partially collapsed. The total number affected is
equivalent to half the housing stock in this city 847 kilometres from
Havana.

Many buildings lost their roofs, and families are impatient over the
delays in replacing them. "We need six million square metres of roofing
and the country produces barely one million," Madeleine Cortés, vice
president of the state administrative council in Santiago province, told
foreign journalists.

People whose homes were damaged receive a state discount of 50 percent
on the cost of building materials and low-interest bank loans with
long-term repayment plans. In the case of families who were left without
a home, the state pays the cost of bank loans, while it also subsidises
the lowest-income families.

Cortés said that as part of the recovery strategy, a programme has been
designed to build 21,400 housing units for those affected by Hurricane
Sandy, as well as families in the poorest neighbourhoods, by 2019.

According to the authorities, every new building must take into account
the risk of hurricanes and earthquakes.

In Mar Verde, a beach community west of the city of Santiago, close to
the spot where Hurricane Sandy made landfall, more than 40 families are
waiting for new housing to be built to replace their homes, which were
laid waste by the sea. In the meantime, they are living in cabins that
used to be rented out to holiday makers.

"They are looking for solid land further away from the coast, as had
been decided before the disaster," said Heriberto Téllez, a 53-year-old
caretaker of an agricultural cooperative who, like his neighbours, hopes
that the new homes will come equipped with the electrical appliances
that were swept away by the waves.

"We are a poor country, not everything can be done all at once. It will
be our turn soon," he told IPS.

Campesinos or small farmers from the southern coast of the province of
Santiago said the worst thing in that area was the aftermath of the
hurricane.

"Usually you're happy because the cyclones bring rain," Carlos Arias,
president of an agricultural cooperative in the area, told IPS. "But
Sandy did not alleviate the intense drought in these parts. It has
barely rained at all in the last nine months."

The farmer added that due to post-disaster stress, rabbits, pigs and
other farm animals stopped breeding, hens laid fewer eggs, cows gave
less milk and even bees did not make honey for a time. "We will be
feeling the effects of the catastrophe for several years," he said.

The government of President Raúl Castro reported in late July that the
damage caused by Sandy to housing, roads and utilities like electricity
and telephone lines in the three most heavily affected provinces –
Santiago de Cuba, Holguín and Guantánamo – and by heavy rainfall and
flooding in the central region of the country was estimated at seven
billion dollars.

In Santiago alone, losses amounted to some 4.7 billion dollars,
according to the provincial authorities, including 2.6 billion dollars
due to total or partial destruction of housing.

In 2008, tropical storm Fay and hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma
damaged 647,111 housing units in the country.

Extreme weather events have compelled the Cuban government to devote the
majority of its housing resources to replacing homes damaged by
hurricanes and heavy rains. The country has a housing deficit of
approximately 700,000 units, according to the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The eastern part of this island of 11.2 million people is also at risk
from earthquakes due to its proximity to the Bartlett or Cayman Trough,
a complex fault zone that forms part of the tectonic boundary between
the North American and Caribbean plates. This poses yet another threat
to housing in the region.

Source: "IPS – Hurricane Sandy Raised Risk Awareness in Eastern Cuba |
Inter Press Service" -
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/08/hurricane-sandy-raised-risk-awareness-in-eastern-cuba/