Wilma paralyzes life in Havana

Wilma paralyzes life in Havana

HAVANA, Oct 24: Roaring seas in the wake of Hurricane Wilma sent massive
waves crashing over Havana’s famed Malecon sea wall on Monday, flooding
shoreline neighborhoods and paralyzing the city of two million.

Rescuers used row boats and makeshift rafts, including inner tubes, to
ferry stranded residents to higher ground as water levels rose.

Parts of the 7-km wall were hidden under the sea.

“I’ve never seen the sea come in so far, not even in the storm of the
century (in 1993), and it is still rising,” said Edith Valdez, a 44-year
resident of Central Havana.

In the Vedado district, known for its Art Deco buildings, sea water
penetrated four blocks inland in some parts, flooding basements of
buildings and hotels. Residents waded to safety through waist-high
waters carrying a few belongings.

The deepest floods were around the Riviera Hotel, build by Mafia boss
Meyer Lansky before Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution ousted U.S. mobsters
and shut down their casinos and brothels.

“I’ve lost everything,” said a barefooted Juan Villar Cuevas, 41, who
lived in a basement apartment.

“It’s amazing, the streets have turned into big canals,” said Olga Livia
Martinez, hugging her boy-friend.

Wilma spared Cuba a direct hit after devastating Mexico’s Mayan Riviera
tourist resorts, but wind gusts of 138kph ripped through Havana,
knocking down lampposts and stripping branches off trees.

Water began crashing over the sea wall after midnight, quickly turning
streets into rivers.

Firemen, including divers in wetsuits, used motorboats to carry
residents to safety. Some evacuees feared their belongings would be stolen.

Havana had no power — authorities cut supplies before the storm on
Sunday to prevent electrical accidents. Streets were strewn with
branches and leaves.

The sea surges forced the evacuation of the low-lying coastal village of
Santa Fe, south of the capital, residents said.

Havana inhabitants debated whether the flooding was worse that the
so-called “storm of the century” when winds from the north caused surge
flooding in Vedado.

“It’s the worst flooding I recall, twice as bad as 1993, and may
continue until dawn,” said Orestes Dominguez, resident of Havana’s leafy
Miramar district, where the sea advanced a full block inland.

Cuban weather experts said seas would subside by late afternoon.

—Reuters

http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/25/int2.htm