Santiago de Cuba Six Months after Hurricane Sandy

Santiago de Cuba Six Months after Hurricane Sandy
April 30, 2013
By Dariela Aquique

HAVANA TIMES — Many people have taken an active interest in seeking out
information about the real situation that the inhabitants of Santiago de
Cuba have faced since hurricane Sandy lashed the province in October of
last year.

Those who live far from the city aren't fully satisfied with the news
offered by Cuba's official media. My colleague and I, who live in
Santiago de Cuba, have been asked to talk about the situation here.

She agreed to do a photo journalism piece, while I took on the
informative post. I'll start by saying that the city did experience a
prompt – though by no means complete – recovery.

Most donations received from abroad, particularly building materials,
have been destined to State institutions which suffered damages during
the hurricane, chiefly schools and hospitals. As I write this report,
however, one can still observe facilities of this nature around the city
where no repair work of any kind has been undertaken.

Homes, the most widely damaged structures, are seeing, and will likely
continue to see, the slowest repair efforts.

Construction brigades made up of locals and Venezuelan workers are
erecting three and four story apartment buildings around the city, to
house families whose homes were partially or totally destroyed by the
hurricane. Priorities are decided on the basis of the damages suffered
and the characteristics of the family affected.

Families with children, elderly or disabled relatives, or very
low-income homes, are first on the list for these apartments.

That said, some have complained about this process. Others have said
that construction work has been slow. Yet others that the apartments
lack the required quality. There is talk of red tape and favoritism in
deciding who gets the new housing.

There are those, too, who report that building materials have been
misappropriated, or sold on the black market.

What truly angered residents of the province, however, was the
distribution of the food products donated by countries around the world
in a show of solidarity towards Cuba.

Grains and cereals, such as rice and beans, were sold at different
locations at very reasonable prices during the first two months
following the hurricane.

Frozen and canned products, however, were made available to the
population at the province's Ideales stores, at hair-raising prices.

Most of the canned foods sold to families during the first days after
the disaster (exclusively meats) were nearing their expiration date,
causing much anger among Santiago de Cuba residents.

Despite these irregularities, the city looks to have recovered
considerably and people are, as usual, "fairly pleased" with the repair
efforts, though there's no shortage of negative comments and complaints
at bus stops, store queues and just about anywhere people talk.

Referring to everything that had ensued since the hurricane, an elderly
gentleman remarked: "Well, Cuba got a fair amount of gifts from abroad
and the State profited from that…Sandy was a good import substitution
strategy."

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