Santiago de Cuba eight years later
Midnight is approaching in Santiago de Cuba and nothing foreshadows what will happen in a few hours.
A televised address by the first party secretary in the province, Lázaro Expósito, announces with dramatic overtones that Hurricane Sandy will pass through the city with a much greater force than anticipated, and urges the residents to protect themselves. After the power cut, darkness makes the moment more tragic; Lanterns begin to be lit and many light candles for their saints, seeking protection. The gusts, with a growing sound, take over the stage.
The time comes when the noise of the tiles torn off by the roots, without distinguishing the city from the country, nor the masonry houses of the humble huts, silences the prayers and the crying of the children, and the uncontrollable fury of the winds takes over of everything. They are long hours of uncertainty, hidden in the places that seem safest: inside closets, under beds, in bathrooms. In many cases, the family has been moving while the roof of the house disappears in pieces. Everyone is waiting for the dawn.
With the first lights of October 25, 2012, under a fine drizzle, little by little the neighbors are leaving. The outlook is devastating; the streets are covered with rubble and in many homes, from the historic center to the suburbs and the fields, the sky serves as a cover. Factories, warehouses, agricultural farms, churches, museums and tourist facilities suffer the same fate. Landslides dot the landscape, mixing bricks with pieces of wood on the floors, tiles with remains of furniture.
Thousands of inhabitants were left without a shelter, not knowing how they would spend that night, what they would eat, what their future would be. But in the bitterest moments the solidarity of the entire population and the spirit of the people of Santiago were always present. Thanks to the rapid evacuation of the most vulnerable, few casualties were lamented, although Sandy has been the most destructive hurricane in eastern Cuba since Flora in 1963.
Damage assessment would begin soon.
Updated estimates put 171,380 homes seriously affected, of which 15,899 were destroyed and 50,585 lost their cover. Added to this are 5,980 damaged economic and service facilities, for a total of 4,700 million pesos in losses, mainly in the municipalities of Santiago de Cuba, Palma Soriano, Songo-La Maya and San Luis.
The essential help began to be received immediately; in the first place, from the Cuban State, which sent the available reserves and brigades of builders and electricians from other provinces; Similarly, many countries donated resources to alleviate the damage and improve the living conditions of the victims.
The effort was enormous, and eight years later, Sandy is the sad memory of an unexpected disaster. Work has been done on the elimination of precarious neighborhoods, the construction of modern buildings and numerous works of social benefit. More than twenty population settlements have been erected in various parts of the city, with buildings of between two and five levels, and attractive and functional designs.
A tour of streets and avenues shows cozy spaces, varied gastronomic offers and other services, recreation centers for all tastes and ages, 200 parks and embellished public squares where you can rest from the suffocating heat and excellent night lighting throughout the city. And the work continues.
Santiago residents often say that Sandy took away the bad and the city looks much more beautiful than before the hurricane, with new spaces and opportunities arising everywhere and inhabitants determined to ensure a stable and prosperous life.
Today Santiago can show much more than the Castillo del Morro, the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, the Sanctuary of the Virgen del Cobre, the Moncada Barracks, the Casa de Velázquez, the Céspedes Park, the Cathedral, the carnivals, the Fire Festival, the French tomb and the Casa de la Trova.
To visit it is to find, together with the hospitality of its people, the beauty scattered everywhere.
It's Santiago de Cuba!
Don't be surprised at anything!
Note: the photographs of the passage of Hurricane Sandy were taken between the early morning of October 25, 2012, until sunset on the 26th.
The images of current Santiago were taken in August 2018 and July 2019.