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Nearly a month after Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in history, devastated the eastern region of the island, thousands of Cubans are still without power, water or adequate shelter.
Families face daily struggles, walking to rivers for water and living together in makeshift shelters and tents every night.
“We lost everything in the flood,” said Lucia Garcia, 80. “I’m very sad and very depressed here.”
Ms Garcia is living in a small classroom with her two sons, aged 45 and 55, and her ailing husband, 81, who is bedridden.
The school they are staying at in the city of Rio Couto serves as shelter for 14 families and provides daily meals to them and 25 other families living with relatives and neighbors. Water delivery trucks pass through every three or four days.
Many residents of the city lived along the river and lost their homes after Melissa cut through eastern Cuba, forcing nearby dams to release massive amounts of water.
According to a November 10 report published in the official newspaper, Granma, more than 2,300 people were evacuated from the Rio Couto area, with more than 750 of them living in private homes. It claimed that the return of residents to their homes “has been completed.”
Major damage was also reported in the nearby city of Los Mangos, where residents said it experienced widespread flooding a day after the storm struck.
“By dawn, the entire village was under water,” Anisledis Hidalgo recalled.
“We were evacuated before the storm hit,” he said. “When we returned home, they came to tell us that there would be flooding… but no one expected that the water would reach that level.”
She is living in a military-style tent with her 5-year-old daughter and two other families.
Lianet Socarras, a social worker in Los Mangos, said 58 people, including 30 children, are sharing 10 tents donated by the Indian government.
“Our most serious problem now is the supply of drinking water in the community,” he said, noting that there is none.
‘The sea came into my house’
Soaked mattresses, electrical appliances, clothes, food, furniture and other items lay strewn outside homes, with the smell of rotting carcasses of animals killed during the storm wafting across the city.
Neither the storm nor the flood caused damage to the electrical system in Los Mangos, but were determined to be power cut It lasted for several hours, making an already difficult situation even worse.
In the southern coastal municipality of Guayama, several towns are still reeling from the storm.
“The sea came into my house and soaked the mattresses, electrical appliances and everything that was in there,” said Altagracia Fonseca, a 65-year-old retiree.
On a recent day, she went to a nearby river to wash some clothes she had saved after a storm.
Before Melissa was impressed, she had evacuated and packed only two changes of clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a towel.
“I packed things like anyone does when they’re going to be away from home for a day,” she said, crying. “I never thought I would find my house in such a dilapidated condition. It was sad, very painful.”
Alejandra Sorilla was in a similar situation.
“I packed clothes for me and my kids in a backpack; that’s all we have,” he said. “It’s something none of us will ever forget.”
Ms. Sorilla, with her husband, two children and their dog, Roky, is living in a small grocery store, where they have built a kitchen and a space that serves as both a bedroom and living room.
“They tell us they’re going to help us, but the resources haven’t come yet,” Sorilla said.
I am running out of patience
Power outages are frequent in Guama and National Electric Union officials have warned that repairs could take until mid-December.
But patience is running out.
Residents in the city of El Carmen recently blocked a main highway with fallen trees and power poles, noting that they were still without power before Melissa struck.
“Everyone wants electricity, and we are working tirelessly to achieve it,” Alfredo Lopez, director general of the National Electric Union, said in a heated discussion with residents in the middle of a blocked road.
While food, mattresses, roof tiles and other goods are being distributed to those affected by the storm, many needs are still not being met as relations between Cuba and the US are at their tensest since US President Donald Trump. donald trump and Secretary of State marco rubio Took charge.
He has imposed a radical tightening of sanctions against the island, which were imposed more than six decades ago to pressure it into changing its economic model.
No storm-related deaths were reported in Cuba, where authorities evacuated more than 700,000 people from coastal areas.
The United Nations said about 53,000 people in Cuba are unable to return to their homes, including 7,500 living in official shelters.
Melissa also made landfall Jamaicawhere at least 45 deaths were reported, and its outer bands were swiped haitiWhere at least 43 people were killed.