Santiago de Cuba, birthplace of their revolution, basically destroyed by Sandy

[flamingdem]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/27/us-storm-sandy-cuba-idUSBRE89Q01920121027



(Reuters) - A day after Hurricane Sandy shattered Santiago de Cuba, retiree Rosa Maria remembered the sound of the storm as it battered her home in the city center.

"The noise of the winds was like the roar of lions," she said on Friday. "It was terrifying."

After the storm passed, Maria, 71, realized she was luckier than many.

The 498-year-old city that has played a major role in Cuban history was littered with fallen trees, broken buildings and downed power poles, but her colonial-era home suffered only minor damage.

Elsewhere, there was no electricity or water in the city of 500,000. The government said it would ship in soap and candles.

As Maria and others recovered from the shock of Sandy, they set about on Friday cleaning up the devastation left by the storm, which struck early on Thursday with 110-mile-per-hour winds and much higher gusts.

They joined soldiers and work brigades shipped in by the Cuban government to clear the streets, distribute water and maintain order in a concerted effort to regain a semblance of normality as quickly as possible.

Bulldozers and other heavy equipment worked around the city to move fallen bricks, knocked down signs and ripped off roof tiles.

"The city looks like a big ant's nest, but organized," said Eduardo Gonzalez as he walked through the city to see the damage.

The burst of activity was the beginning of what will likely be a long road to recovery in southeastern Cuba after Sandy cut a swath of death and destruction through the region on its way north.

Its powerful winds and rains were blamed for 41 deaths in several Caribbean countries, including 11 in Cuba. Most were killed by falling trees and in building collapses. The storm is on course to hit large parts of Eastern United States next week.

The Cuban fatalities were unusual for the communist-ruled country that has long prided itself on protecting its people from storms by ordering mass evacuations.

====================== also - almost half of the houses were damaged!


"Everything is destroyed in Santiago. People are going to have to work very hard to recover," Alexis Manduley, a resident of the city, told Reuters by telephone.

After striking Jamaica, Sandy strengthened as it crossed warm Caribbean waters and roared ashore just west of Santiago de Cuba, raking the 498-year-old city with heavy rains and wind gusts that exceeded 150 mph (245 kph) in higher elevations.
Santiago de Cuba, 470 miles (756 km) southeast of Havana, is a popular tourist destination because of its large role in Cuban history, its music and its Caribbean ambience.

Its first mayor was Hernan Cortes, who went on to conquer Mexico for Spain, key battles were fought there during the Spanish-American War and Fidel Castro spent part of his childhood in the city.

Castro's rebel army fought from the surrounding Sierra Maestra mountains and on January 1, 1959, he declared victory from a balcony overlooking Santiago de Cuba's main square.

On Thursday, it was a city of half a million people with no power, no water service and little public transportation.
Cuban television showed people walking down the middle of main avenues empty of vehicles, but strewn with broken palm fronds and branches.

Restaurant workers chopped fallen trees with machetes to clear an outside eating area where sun shades were ripped apart and strewn about. Sidewalks were blocked by bricks from fallen walls.

CRUMBLING BUILDINGS
A local television reporter told Cuban state television by phone that many of the city's 300,000 homes were in bad shape before the storm and therefore vulnerable to its powerful winds and rain.

[flamingdem]

1. Video of damage in Santiago - Cuban TV

[naaman fletcher]

2. They'll be getting a good look at how efficiently Cuba deals with hurricanes, anyway.

They've got it down in the later years to minimize the damage to people, their critters, and property.

[joshcryer]

3. Yep, basically the entire island goes to shelters.

Their infrastructure can't really hold up to it. Thankfully it didn't smack into Havana. The crumbling buildings would've been obliterated by a direct hit.

[Judi Lynn]

4. What a nightmare. It's such an old, old city, too. Thanks for posting this information here.

Hope the people will be able to get livable conditions in place soon.

Community organization can help things get repaired a lot faster than the alternative "every man for himself" routine!

[dipsydoodle]

5. I had friends the on the north side of the island at Guardalavaca which got hit too.

Just received a text from the girls this morning UK time. Cuba shut down the whole resort area and bused everyone long ways up the coast to Varadero - a 15 hour bus ride. I'll hear more when they get back to Holland end of this week.

Must be a lot desperate reorganising going on over there with flights - thousands of tourists who will now fly home from Havana instead of Holguin.

Tragic about Santiago de Cuba.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Cuba's 2nd city without power, water after Sandy

AP foreign, Tuesday October 30 2012

Associated Press= HAVANA (AP) — Residents of Cuba's second-largest city of Santiago remained without power or running water Monday, four days after Hurricane Sandy made landfall as the island's deadliest storm in seven years, ripping rooftops from homes and toppling power lines.

Across the Caribbean, the storm's death toll rose to 69, including 52 people in Haiti, 11 in Cuba, two in the Bahamas, two in the Dominican Republic, one in Jamaica and one in Puerto Rico.

Cuban authorities have not yet estimated the economic toll, but the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported there was "severe damage to housing, economic activity, fundamental public services and institutions of education, health and culture."

Yolanda Tabio, a native of Santiago, said she had never seen anything like it in all her 64 years: Broken hotel and shop windows, trees blown over onto houses, people picking through piles of debris for a scrap of anything to cover their homes. On Sunday, she sought solace in faith.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10505964

[flamingdem]

7. It's heartbreaking

Santiago is very poor by most standards, this is just overwhelming. I know someone who is doing graduate work there and she is handling donations and is very trustworthy, if you know anyone who would be interested in that. In particular she's connected with artists and musicians and the Haitian descendant community.


I found this site as well:

http://porotracuba.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/ayuda-para-el-oriente-de-cuba/

also an article about Santiagueros fundraising in Little Havana:

http://cafefuerte.com/miami/noticias-de-miami/sociedad/2294-santiagueros-se-movilizan-en-miami-para-ayudar-a-damnificados-en-cuba

Las personas que deseen ayudar a los damnificados en Cuba pueden llevar sus donaciones a la Casa del municipio Santiago de Cuba en el Exilio, ubicada en el 845 SW 14 Ave, Miami, en el horario de 8 a.m. a 6 p.m. Más información en el teléfono [phone]

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Los santiagueros residentes en Miami lanzaron un llamado a la comunidad para recaudar ayuda que será enviada a los damnificados del huracán Sandy en Cuba.

La Casa del Municipio de Santiago de Cuba en el Exilio, localizada en La Pequeña Habana, abrió sus puertas desde el pasado sábado y está recogiendo donaciones de dinero, medicinas y comida enlatada que para enviarlas con destino al oriente de la isla.

Los donativos serán enviado con la mayor rapidez a través de las Hijas de la Caridad y la organización católica humanitaria Caritas.

"Este es un llamado a toda la comunidad del sur de la Florida para ayudar a nuestros hemanos en el oriente de Cuba ante un desastre tremendo", dijo Antonio González Montoya, presidente del Municipio de Santiago de Cuba en el Exilio.

Santiago sigue a oscuras

González insistió en el "carácter humanitario, sin implicaciones políticas" de la ayuda en momentos en que la población del oriente cubano enfrenta una panorama de destrucción y carencias, agravado por la falta de electricidad y servicios telefónicos.