Residents, still reeling from Charlie, hit again
Ray Sanchez/Direct from Havana | Direct from Havana
September 7, 2008
PLAYA DEL CAJIO, CUBA
In the days since Hurricane Gustav pummeled western Cuba, angry
residents here said not a single official had checked on this fishing
town that was virtually erased by Hurricane Charlie four years ago.
"No one has stopped by to see if we're eating," said 91-year-old Juana
Diaz Gonzalez, whose seaside home lost part of its roof to Gustav's
Category 4 winds. "We eat what we can. We live like dogs."
The plight of many of Playa del Cajio's 1,500 residents offers a lesson
for other hard-hit communities that hope the state will help them
rebuild quickly.
People here said they have struggled with official bureaucracy and
ineptitude since Charlie battered the town in 2004.
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"It's been four years since Charlie and we're still waiting for new
homes," said Rachel Gonzalez Ojeda, 44, seated outside her roofless wood
and concrete home. "We never even got the materials to do the repairs.
We rebuilt what we could on our own."
As she spoke, more than a dozen neighbors nodded in agreement. "We can't
remain silent anymore," she said.
Gustav slammed into the Isle of Youth on Aug. 30 and then crossed a
tobacco-rich swath of Cuba's western mainland. Authorities evacuated
467,000 people before the storm. Afterwards, they reported only 19
injuries and no deaths.
But the storm tore the roofs off many homes, schools and businesses, and
completely leveled others. No official damage estimate has been
announced, but former president Fidel Castro likened the destruction on
the Isle of Youth to an atomic explosion and suggested repair costs for
Cuba could run into the billions of dollars.
In Pinar del Rio, more than 90,000 homes were damaged or destroyed,
authorities said. On the Isle of Youth, 20,000 of the island's 25,000
houses were damaged.
In Playa del Cajio, people said other badly hit communities should
prepare themselves.
"We're not blaming the revolution or the Comandante," said Ramon
Gonzalez Alvarez, 48, referring to Castro. "We blame the local
authorities for failing us."
Alvarez and other residents said that after Charlie the state trucked in
some building supplies and full-time work brigades who helped rebuild
the local market, primary school and a couple of dozen homes.
But more was needed. Many people rebuilt on their own, constructing
flimsy shacks from wood scraps and thatched roofing that now has been
damaged by Gustav.
Daisy Tapanes Rodriguez, 50, a resident of Playa del Cajio, was reminded
that Castro wrote in a recent essay that no storm victim would be
forgotten by the state. She immediately held up four fingers.
"We've been forgotten for four years now," she said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-flbcubanotebook0907sbsep07,0,6344735.column
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