This Is How Eastern Cuba Awaits Hurricane Melissa
Without power, with little food and scarce information
“We know more about Melissa from Facebook than from Cubavisión,” a young woman in Holguín tells this newspaper.
HAVANA TIMES – The imminent arrival of Hurricane Melissa—now a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 280 km/h—finds much of eastern Cuba in darkness, poorly informed, and without visible preparations. Blackouts, untrimmed trees, deteriorating homes, and food shortages form a landscape of vulnerability that worries residents, who say they are following the storm’s progress more through social media than through state media. The situation is concerning, given that flooding and heavy rains are expected to begin in Cuba as early as tonight.
“We know more about Melissa from Facebook than from Cubavisión TV,” says a young woman from Holguín’s main municipality, who has taken refuge with her family “in the concrete-roofed house” of some relatives. “To top it off, a truck hit an electric pole, and now it’s unlikely they’ll fix it before the hurricane passes. Anyway, the blackouts never stopped,” she adds.
Despite official claims that police are patrolling neighborhoods with loudspeakers to alert residents, several people in the city told 14ymedio they haven’t heard any such announcements. On the road to Gibara, locals say the necessary tree trimming has not been done to prevent them from falling on roads or power lines. “San Germán was supposed to get electricity at noon, but we’re still in blackout,” wrote a resident on Facebook. Most replies to the post mix complaints and prayers as the hurricane approaches.
From Guantánamo, Niober García reports that preparations are minimal. “I don’t see much being done. I heard that a car with a loudspeaker passed through one avenue, but I didn’t see it. During one of the few moments when we had power, I saw they had sent a bus to evacuate people from the low-lying area of San Antonio, to avoid a repeat of what happened last time,” he explains. García refers to the floods caused by Hurricane Oscar in 2024, in which eight people died, mainly in San Antonio del Sur and Imías.
He also says that blackouts have worsened just when people most need to stay informed. “People here don’t have many ways to know what’s going on. They said they were going to reduce the outages, but we’re worse off. In my area, the rotation schedule has collapsed, and we go more than 12 hours without electricity.”
Another resident of the province, age 52, says authorities “promised to sell the rations from the basic basket ahead of schedule, but nothing at all.” He adds that even the products from August haven’t been distributed yet. Regarding electricity, he says: “They put it on at 12:24 and cut it off barely 40 minutes later. They put it on and take it off. It’s madness—this country has collapsed.”
The long blackouts in that region contrast with Monday morning’s announcement from the state Electric Company. “Due to the proximity of the powerful Hurricane Melissa, it was decided to prioritize the availability of existing energy in the country for the eastern region of Cuba to ensure better preparedness of the population to face the meteorological event, so the rest of the provinces will experience greater outages.”
In Contramaestre, writer Arnoldo Fernández used the few moments with electricity and internet to report on preparations in his town. The historian fears that Melissa, “when it reaches Cuba, will be a deluge accompanied by winds—everything that once was our material past may be erased forever.”
Fear of worsening epidemiological conditions—already marked in recent months by outbreaks of arboviruses—is also on the minds of residents in the areas expected to be hardest hit. From the city of Camagüey, Nora, 79, still hasn’t recovered from the lingering effects of chikungunya. A retired doctor, she urges extreme precautions after Melissa passes because “the situation could become even more favorable for the proliferation of disease vectors.”
Eduardo, from El Cobre in Santiago de Cuba, also reports that “there’s no power” and that “the ration store has only distributed one pound of sugar—from July’s allotment—along with cigarettes and a packet of spaghetti.” He adds that the only real initiative has been “by the priest, who has sheltered people in the motel run by the church.” He also says there have already been gusts of wind that “have knocked down banana plants,” and that in El Cobre “there are no police or ambulances.”
In Baracoa, Monday morning passed without any major signs of Melissa’s approach. “There’s an unsettling calm,” says Dosiel, a 31-year-old from Guantanamo who lives just a few meters from the sea, speaking by phone to this newspaper. “My brother called early from Miami and told us everything, because here information has come in bits and pieces—we even thought Melissa had weakened, and it turns out it’s already Category 5.”
To prepare, his family has placed sandbags on the roof. “They’re fiber-cement tiles, and we can’t afford to have them blow away—we’d never be able to replace them, since getting construction materials here is extremely difficult.” When Hurricane Sandy struck the city 13 years ago, Dosiel’s family “lost a room and the bathroom.”
Since then, they’ve only been able to clear the rubble and build a makeshift wooden latrine, “because we haven’t been able to get the materials for repairs.” Now they’re trying to reinforce the windows with “recycled nails a neighbor gave us,” and if the storm forces them to stay home for days, they have a meager stock of food: “My brother tried to send us a package with canned goods and crackers, but the store’s website said they could no longer guarantee deliveries to Baracoa. So all we have is a little sugar, some hot dogs, and a can of sardines.”
In the city of Holguín, Heberto fears both the winds and rising prices. Within a single week, he saw at the Los Chinos Market how a pound of black beans rose from 380 to 410 pesos, rice from 250 to 280, and imported sugar—the only kind available amid Cuba’s disastrous sugar harvest—from 300 to 320. The city’s main agricultural market is proving to be a reliable barometer of public mood.
“People are trying to buy food that won’t spoil, because we’ll probably face several days without electricity,” Heberto tells this newspaper. “The blackouts are the same as ever—more than 12 hours a day without power,” complains the man, who believes this could hinder people’s access to information and ability to “charge their devices.” In his solid-roof home, he’s already “sheltering some relatives who came from Rafael Freyre because they live in a very fragile little house.”
The organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called on the countries most affected by Melissa to also strengthen protections for animals. Among its recommendations: not leaving them “tied up or locked in cages, kennels, or sheds,” since “in case of collapse, flooding, or landslides, they wouldn’t be able to escape to safety.”
The U.S.-based group advises having “an emergency plan” that includes pets and urges people not to abandon dogs, cats, and other animals that depend on human care. The area where Melissa is expected to make landfall in Cuba is largely rural and mountainous, which makes the evacuation of people, animals, and belongings even more difficult.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
Canadians are praying for Cubans now and always. Take care of yourselves and each other at this time.