Posted on Tue, Oct. 25, 2005
Americas storm
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@herald.com
Crashing waves bring more trouble for Cuba
The crashing waves that flooded Havana's coast Monday brought another destructive element besides water: salt.
The sea salt will contaminate and corrode hundreds of already precarious buildings, some older than 100 years, experts said. It's a risk the city's housing stock, already strained from massive overcrowding and years of neglect, can hardly endure.
''The floods will make everything worse,'' said Florida International University professor Nicolás Quintana, a former city planner in Cuba. ``Will the floods ruin the buildings? These buildings are already ruined.
``I don't think half the people will be able to go back to their homes, and they don't have anywhere to go.''
Hurricane Wilma blew past Cuba Sunday night with an average downpour of nine inches of rain in two days. But the most surprising destruction that tore down hotel windows and shredded roads was not caused by rain; it came from the sea.
Shortly before 2 a.m. Monday, the capital's seawall captured in countless postcards, the malecón where sweethearts gather to smooch and stare at the sea, began coming apart.
The storm surge crashed over the seaside highway, rushing water three feet deep and five blocks back. Basement apartments in already crumbling buildings were ruined, and civil defense officers had to don scuba gear to rescue the stranded.
Not since a 1993 storm dubbed the ''Storm of the Century'' had anything like that happened, experts said. Havana's elevated grand old promenade, the Paseo del Prado, was so inundated that only the lion statues poked through the water.
''That is something I have never seen before,'' said 70-year-old Mario Coyula, a well-known Cuban architect, by phone from Havana.
Romans used salt to finish off their enemies' vegetation, Coyula said, and the sea just dumped a bunch all over the city.
Coyula said three studies showed Cuba needs underwater breakers to soften the waves' blow, but cost estimates in the millions make the project prohibitive.
But while the images of waves thrashing against the Cuban Foreign Ministry were dramatic, Coyula said storm surge is just one part of an ongoing problem.
''The waves were more spectacular, but it's the daily problem of sea salt that damages the brick, steel and paint,'' Coyula said. ``It's a very serious price for the privilege of living by the sea. The flood just aggravates the situation.''
He said heavy rainfall is actually much worse for the buildings, but the older ones tend to stand up to it more than those built between 1910 and 1940. A survey of the damages will be done today, now that the water has receded, he said.
Quintana said 70 percent of Havana's housing stock is in precarious condition, meaning in the United States, they would be condemned.
He said almost all the buildings are in urgent need of repair, and the regular onslaught of storms doesn't help. The 500-year-old Cuban capital holds the world's largest collection of Spanish colonial buildings, but many are so deteriorated that they regularly crumble under heavy rainfall.
About 1,400 buildings must be abandoned each year for fear of collapsing.
The Cuban government said Wilma damaged 2,000 homes.
''There have been serious damages, because there were many hours of storm surge and strong waves,'' Humberto Camilo Torres, president of the Municipal Defense Council, told Granma, Cuba's official government newspaper.
He said 3,000 people fled their homes, adding to the 120,887 people in Havana who had evacuated.
''I have lived here for 18 years,'' Jesús Pérez Cabrera, who lives along Playa Avenue, told Granma on Monday. 'And no other hurricane, not even the `storm of the century' in 1993 had so much penetration from the sea.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12995087.htm
Americas storm
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@herald.com
Crashing waves bring more trouble for Cuba
The crashing waves that flooded Havana's coast Monday brought another destructive element besides water: salt.
The sea salt will contaminate and corrode hundreds of already precarious buildings, some older than 100 years, experts said. It's a risk the city's housing stock, already strained from massive overcrowding and years of neglect, can hardly endure.
''The floods will make everything worse,'' said Florida International University professor Nicolás Quintana, a former city planner in Cuba. ``Will the floods ruin the buildings? These buildings are already ruined.
``I don't think half the people will be able to go back to their homes, and they don't have anywhere to go.''
Hurricane Wilma blew past Cuba Sunday night with an average downpour of nine inches of rain in two days. But the most surprising destruction that tore down hotel windows and shredded roads was not caused by rain; it came from the sea.
Shortly before 2 a.m. Monday, the capital's seawall captured in countless postcards, the malecón where sweethearts gather to smooch and stare at the sea, began coming apart.
The storm surge crashed over the seaside highway, rushing water three feet deep and five blocks back. Basement apartments in already crumbling buildings were ruined, and civil defense officers had to don scuba gear to rescue the stranded.
Not since a 1993 storm dubbed the ''Storm of the Century'' had anything like that happened, experts said. Havana's elevated grand old promenade, the Paseo del Prado, was so inundated that only the lion statues poked through the water.
''That is something I have never seen before,'' said 70-year-old Mario Coyula, a well-known Cuban architect, by phone from Havana.
Romans used salt to finish off their enemies' vegetation, Coyula said, and the sea just dumped a bunch all over the city.
Coyula said three studies showed Cuba needs underwater breakers to soften the waves' blow, but cost estimates in the millions make the project prohibitive.
But while the images of waves thrashing against the Cuban Foreign Ministry were dramatic, Coyula said storm surge is just one part of an ongoing problem.
''The waves were more spectacular, but it's the daily problem of sea salt that damages the brick, steel and paint,'' Coyula said. ``It's a very serious price for the privilege of living by the sea. The flood just aggravates the situation.''
He said heavy rainfall is actually much worse for the buildings, but the older ones tend to stand up to it more than those built between 1910 and 1940. A survey of the damages will be done today, now that the water has receded, he said.
Quintana said 70 percent of Havana's housing stock is in precarious condition, meaning in the United States, they would be condemned.
He said almost all the buildings are in urgent need of repair, and the regular onslaught of storms doesn't help. The 500-year-old Cuban capital holds the world's largest collection of Spanish colonial buildings, but many are so deteriorated that they regularly crumble under heavy rainfall.
About 1,400 buildings must be abandoned each year for fear of collapsing.
The Cuban government said Wilma damaged 2,000 homes.
''There have been serious damages, because there were many hours of storm surge and strong waves,'' Humberto Camilo Torres, president of the Municipal Defense Council, told Granma, Cuba's official government newspaper.
He said 3,000 people fled their homes, adding to the 120,887 people in Havana who had evacuated.
''I have lived here for 18 years,'' Jesús Pérez Cabrera, who lives along Playa Avenue, told Granma on Monday. 'And no other hurricane, not even the `storm of the century' in 1993 had so much penetration from the sea.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12995087.htm
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