Hurricane Milton’s Aftermath in My Havana Neighborhood  

By Irina Pino

HAVANA TIMES – Just a few hours after Hurricane Milton passed through Florida, USA, causing terrible material damage and claiming several lives, its impact is also noticeable in various places here, like El Vedado, especially the areas near Havana’s Malecon.

Here where I live near La Puntilla, Miramar, since Wednesday afternoon, there were waves reaching over four meters, which, combined with the force of the wind, contributed to flooding this coastal area. It’s a miracle that no power lines or tree branches fell, as usually happens when such phenomena occur.

When I woke up, I saw that the sea waters had risen to a level that covered the sidewalks, and trash bins were completely overturned, floating. Fortunately, the garbage truck had passed the night before and emptied the containers, so the pollution damage has been less severe.

On A and B Streets, continuing along 1st Avenue, in front of the La Puntilla shopping center, stones and mud blocked cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians from passing. Later, they cleared the entrance a bit because the store opened, despite today being October 10th, a holiday.

The seaside route I usually use for my morning walks is unrecognizable, filled with stones and mud. The long ruins of the Riomar apartment building weren’t spared either, with water and stones flooding its garages.

It’s not going to be easy to restore our streets and this area to a clean and accessible state.

See more from the diary of Irina Pino here.