Rebuilding efforts underway in Eastern Cuba but U.S. hurricane aid rebuffed

Rebuilding efforts underway in Eastern Cuba but U.S. hurricane aid rebuffed
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com

For many residents of Baracoa, the Cuban city hit hardest by Hurricane
Matthew, it could be a long time before life returns to normal.

Two weeks after the ferocious storm plowed across the eastern tip of the
island, schools were back in session and construction materials and
heavy equipment from Venezuela and Japan had started to arrive, helping
Cuban government efforts to clear roads and restore electricity and
communications systems. Cubana de Aviación also plans to resume flights
to Baracoa Thursday.

But despite offers from U.S. charities to send food and other relief,
shipments from the United States has been rebuffed thus far.

"The problem is the [Cuban] government is not allowing emergency relief
to come in from the United States," said the Rev. José Espino, a Hialeah
priest who is helping coordinate Archdiocese of Miami relief efforts for
the Diocese of Guantánamo-Baracoa.

The Miami archdiocese has asked for canned food, donations of rice and
beans, cash and help with transporting goods to both Haiti and Cuba.
Shipments already have been dispatched to Haiti, but none have gone out
to Cuba.

Teams from Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services rode out the storm
in towns on Haiti's southwest peninsula and immediately after Matthew
tore through began distributing pre-positioned supplies. But there
hasn't been a similar pipeline to Cuba. CRS says the "most likely
scenario" is that it will provide funding to Caritas Cuba, the Catholic
relief mission on the island, so that it can buy supplies in-country.

"The problem buying in the local market in Cuba is there is no wholesale
and buying in quantity means there wouldn't be supplies for other people
in Cuba," Espino said. "So the church is buying supplies little by little."

Among the most immediate needs, according to CRS, are zinc sheeting to
repair homes, mattresses, food, hygiene supplies, kitchen utensils and
seed and tools to help farmers get back on their feet.

Espino said there's plenty of willingness from the U.S. to help Cuba —
including the offer of a 727 to fly in food — but the church in Cuba
hasn't been able to get permission to receive such supplies.

Instead, Espino said, the archdiocese has been helping with monetary
donations that have been used to purchase food and supplies in Havana
and other cities for distribution in the eastern Cuba communities
ravaged by Matthew.

"Our role in Miami is to support the church in Cuba," said Espino,
pastor of San Lazaro Church in Hialeah. "The church will be there."

Msgr. Wilfredo Pino Estévez, the bishop of Guantánamo-Baracoa, made an
arduous 20-hour journey over destroyed roads to Baracoa immediately
after the hurricane to see what help was needed.

Baracoa is the first Spanish settlement on the island. Before Matthew's
140 mph winds and a storm surge that came over the seawall and raced
three blocks inland reduced sections of Baracoa to tinder, it was known
for its picturesque colonial buildings, its three forts and its wide
coastal boulevard, the Malecón.

In an open letter, Pino said the diocese and Caritas-Guantánamo are now
in the process of visiting affected towns, "returning again and again,
locating vulnerable people due to illness, disabilities, their age to
bring them a little relief, a little food: a soup, rice, crackers with
guayaba."

The U.N. World Food Programme said it plans to distribute food to
180,000 people in coordination with the Cuban government over the next
six months. The Cuban press recently reported that temporary warehouses
and chlorine tablets to purify water had arrived, but it did not mention
any food shipments.

Up to now there haven't been any international food arrivals, the Rev.
Mateo Costinobi, a parish priest in Baracoa , said in a telephone
interview. "The state has given out seven pounds of rice and a week
after the hurricane, the stores reopened but there are immense lines and
police at each store."

Some Cuban-American families who want to help relatives in Baracoa have
resorted to sending food packages through Supermarket23.com, a Canadian
online company, and say their families have received them.

Immediately after the hurricane, mudslides, washouts, fallen trees and
flooding cut off some towns in Guantánamo province. But construction
crews, heavy machinery and bucket trucks now crowd the streets of
Baracoa as linesmen hurry to restore electricity and fixed-line
telephone service.

Despite the heavy damages, no loss of life was reported in Cuba.

On Sunday, a second military ship from Venezuela arrived in Santiago on
Cuba's southern coast. Its cargo: 396 tons of electrical transformers,
dump trucks, concrete mixers, and materials for home construction. Two
more shiploads from Venezuela are expected despite the severe economic
problems Cuba's staunch ally is experiencing at home.

Japan has donated a planeload of tents, rolls of cables, water purifiers
and other relief supplies.

The Venezuelan army also is working with Cuban specialists to rebuild a
bridge over the Toa River that used to connect Baracoa and Moa,
according to Cuban press reports.

Over the weekend, José Ramón Machado Ventura, the second secretary of
Cuba's Communist Party, visited Baracoa and Maisí, another hard-hit
eastern Cuba town, to discuss efforts to revive coffee plantations and
damaged cacao and plantain crops as soon as possible. Cuban leader Raúl
Castro also has visited the two communities.

Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, reported that
about 90 percent of homes in the Maisí area were damaged. "You received
a heavy blow, but we will recover," Castro said during his visit to Maisí.

"Many have returned to where they had their homes, trying to recover the
half roof that they had; they're living under the open sky," said Costinobi.

The government has offered to pick up half of the cost of construction
materials for homes that were damaged or lost during the hurricane.
Municipal Defense Councils are assessing damage at each home and will
decide what resources are needed to rebuild. Hurricane victims also may
apply for bank credits at low interest rates with long repayment terms.

"In the municipalities of Baracoa, Maisí, Imías many, many [homes] have
been left without roofs and more than just a few are totally destroyed,"
Pino wrote in his letter.

EL NUEVO HERALD STAFF WRITER NORA GÁMEZ TORRES CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.

Source: Rebuilding efforts underway in Eastern Cuba but U.S. hurricane
aid rebuffed | In Cuba Today -
http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article109187097.html