Cuba: Havana Housing Suffers New Blow
HAVANA TIMES — The rains last week sped up the persistent deterioration of poorly maintained Havana building infrastructure. The Cuban government reports today that at least 135 buildings suffered damage including 18 totally collapsed and two reported deaths.
A total of 417 families were evacuated to the homes of relatives or neighbors or to the 25 shelters set up by the government in the 16 Havana municipalities.
With many buildings in the older sections of the Cuban capital in a state of severe deterioration, the civil defense authorities try to convince the residents not to return to their houses or apartments until their security can be guaranteed.
However, sometimes those families taking refuge prefer to take the risk rather than live several years in a group shelter due to the inability of the government to provide substitute housing or repair existing buildings.
Semi-permanent lodging with relatives can also be highly undesirable beyond the immediate emergency due to high population density with three generations living in many homes.
Also see: Havana Hit by Intense Rain and Flooding
Who cares abut pueblo Cubano???
At the same time Cuban government is building lots of new expensive
hotels and new big Marina in Varadero,
with lots of very big expensive yachts not for puebl Cubano. They using lots of
cements and building materials to make tourist happy, but no one cares about Cubanos
in Havana. Who cares not Raul and
Gaviota Tour.
Just visit the new Marina
and new hotel Melia Marina Varadero, very impressive and expensive to make,
empty.
There is so much implied in this one simple sentence:
“However, sometimes those families taking refuge prefer to take the risk rather than live several years in a group shelter due to the inability of the government to provide substitute housing or repair existing buildings.”
“sometimes” …implying this sort of thing is a common enough experience for Cubans.
“several years in a group shelter” …after several years a temporary shelter isn’t temporary. It’s your permanent home.
“the inability of the government” …Really??? The government is unable or unwilling? I suspect the latter.
According to the government-controlled national newspaper, Granma, (http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2013/12/03/pdf/pagina02.pdf ) the number of buildings which suffered damage as a result of the recent rains has already been increased to 227 and 627 families have been affected. Over the next week this number is expected to increase further as the sun dries out other weakened structures. Given the tens of thousands of Cubans in Havana already living in less than safe buildings owed to more than 50 years of negligence and poor maintenance, there is little hope that victims of this latest storm will see government help anytime soon.