Saturday 13 December 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
CUBA: Years of
Reconstruction Ahead
By Dalia Acosta
GIBARA, Cuba (IPS)
- Rosa María Leyva was
one of the first people
to reach Caletones after
it was ravaged by
Hurricane Ike. It took
six hours to clear the
road between the small
fishing and resort
village -- just one of
seven seaside
neighbourhoods in this
area destroyed by the
storm -- and the eastern
Cuban port city of
Gibara.
The 20-km road between
Caletones and Gibara,
paved just this year,
was torn up by the sea,
which also destroyed
almost every building in
Caletones, leaving only
a few sturdy government
vacation colony
structures standing,
which are now being used
as shelters for people
who lost their homes in
the hurricane.
"When we say that whole
neighbourhoods
disappeared, we mean
that nothing is left. We
took back one person
from each family, and
some people couldn’t
find any of their
belongings, not even a
pan. They’re still
looking for their things
among the mangroves,"
Leyva, president of the
Defence Council of
Gibara, located 775 km
east of Havana, told IPS.
"The first clothes and
household items were
donated by the
townspeople. We
relocated families in
the vacation colonies
for employees of state
enterprises, and gave
them the first
mattresses" distributed
by the government, said
Leyva.
Three months after the
disaster, the
41-year-old nurse -- the
first woman secretary of
the governing Communist
Party in this city in
Holguín province -- says
"a lot has been done in
this area to help people
rebuild their lives."
But while it "took a
great deal of work but
only a short time" to
rebuild the road,
restore basic services,
clean up the city of
Gibara, and replant
crops to guarantee food
supplies, it could take
years to rebuild the
homes that were
destroyed, she said.
Naturally, there are
many complaints. Some
people protest that the
construction material
committees formed in the
communities solve "small
problems but don’t
tackle the big ones";
some are asking to be
given the materials
directly so they can
rebuild their homes
themselves; and others
want to know exactly how
long they will have to
wait.
"We must keep people
informed, but we have to
be careful not to make
promises we can’t keep.
It’s not our intention
to fool people," said
Leyva, who has worked in
the Communist Party for
10 years and has
occupied the position of
municipal secretary for
the past year.
"In 1963, Hurricane
Flora hit this area, but
the damage was repaired
very quickly. We know
we’re making progress
every day, but we also
know that full recovery
will take several
years," she said. Cuban
President Raúl Castro
"warned us it would take
time, but we knew that
already," she added.
NO TIME FOR COMPLAINING
In one night, Hurricane
Ike, with sustained wind
speeds of more than 195
km per hour, damaged or
destroyed some 19,000
homes, more than 70
percent of all of the
housing in the
municipality of Gibara,
which has a population
of 42,000. A similar
situation was seen in
other municipalities in
northern Holguín
province, such as Banes
and Antilla.
An official report,
published by the local
newspaper Ahora on Oct.
26, revealed that
130,063 homes in this
province of just over
one million people
suffered some form of
damage. Of that total,
32,134 lost their roofs,
22,574 were partially
wrecked and 18,819 were
flattened.
More than a million
cubic metres of solid
waste -- equivalent to
the rubbish produced by
the entire province in
one year -- was
collected in just one
month. Relief efforts
focused on basic
services, food supplies,
public health
facilities, and the
greatest challenge of
all, housing.
According to Communist
Party provincial
secretary Miguel Díaz
Canell, the relief
efforts in Holguín have
been based on a
three-pronged approach:
immediate emergency
action; designing and
implementing a
well-planned strategy;
and using the
pre-disaster situation
as a benchmark to
guarantee development.
"The most important
thing is not to despair.
We need to concentrate
on erasing the scars,"
Díaz Canell said in the
television programme
Criterio Compartido.
Cuba was hit by three
major hurricanes in just
over two months: Gustav
on Aug. 30, Ike from
Sept. 7-9 and Paloma on
Nov. 8. According to
official sources, the
three storms caused more
than 10 billion dollars
in losses, although
thanks to the country’s
well-oiled evacuation
system, only seven
people were killed.
Despite the complicated
situation, as of Dec. 7
the province had been
able to repair the
damages in 36,589 of the
wrecked homes -- almost
30 percent of all the
houses affected. Another
7,363 were being worked
on, and 9,950 temporary
facilities had been
built to provide shelter
for families until a
more definitive solution
is found.
Of the 315,549 people
evacuated by the
authorities as the
hurricane closed in,
5,758 have not been able
to return to their
homes, with 4,846 of
them living with friends
or relatives and the
rest housed in
government buildings.
"Gibara is the
municipality with the
greatest number of
people who still haven’t
been able to return home
because they lost their
houses. We’ve been able
to repair or rebuild
2,000 houses, but we
haven’t been able to fix
more than 10 percent of
the total damage," Leyva
said.
The city is also
conditioning a lot
provided by a family to
build new homes for
hurricane evacuees,
which will hold 48
"petro-homes" --
constructions made from
polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
materials -- donated by
the government of
Venezuela in the wake of
Hurricane Ike.
"The houses are
spacious, with three
bedrooms, and we have to
take good advantage of
them by assigning them
to large families. We
know that there’s bound
to be people who aren’t
happy, because there are
so many needs to
address, but the
important thing is that
48 families are going to
be given an almost
immediate solution,"
Leyva said.
IN SEARCH OF
ALTERNATIVES
In Gibara, the old clay
roof tiles withstood the
strong winds better than
the newer fibrocement
roofing. In rural areas,
palm thatch roofs were
also more resistant than
the more modern
alternatives, which were
destroyed by Ike.
Why are some roofs more
resistant than others?
And why is it that, even
when made from the same
materials, some roofs
withstand hurricanes
better than others?
These are questions that
Holguín province
authorities are asking
in an effort to learn
from the devastation
caused by Ike.
The official report
published in Ahora in
October recommends that
an assessment be made
towards introducing
changes in construction
standards to build
hurricane-proof housing
and require that
investors observe civil
defence measures aimed
at protecting the
population from such
disasters.
An option that is being
pursued in Holguín
involves a project
developed by the Central
University of Villa
Clara, some 250 km from
Havana, which promotes
risk reduction in
buildings through
appropriate technology
transfer, use of
ecomaterials
(environmentally-friendly,
economical materials),
and local production.
In addition to
encouraging the
development of new
construction materials,
including artisanal
production of bricks
made from industrial
waste, Leyva is closely
studying the few roofs
that were left standing
in Caletones. "Only
vaulted roofs withstood
the storm. The key seems
to be in the arc shape,"
she said.
"Vaulted roofs are built
with bricks, cement and
a minimum amount of
sand, making them a very
attractive alternative.
Sand is the most
problematic element in
the country. We face all
sorts of problems, but
what really prevents us
from speeding up
recovery efforts in
housing is sand," she
told IPS. |
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