Gibara Wrecked

Near the end of last year's hurricane season in the Caribbean Faye, Gustav and Ike scoured Cuba and other surrounding islands each in the course of a few short weeks. Residents hardly had a moment to get their bearings between the storms. Gustav was particularly devastating, one of the worst storms to hit the island in living memory. While the death toll in Cuba was kept to a minimum by well planned, and mandatory evacuations the material damage was extensive. Homes, schools, hospitals,...
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Near the end of last year's hurricane season in the Caribbean Faye, Gustav and Ike scoured Cuba and other surrounding islands each in the course of a few short weeks. Residents hardly had a moment to get their bearings between the storms. Gustav was particularly devastating, one of the worst storms to hit the island in living memory. While the death toll in Cuba was kept to a minimum by well planned, and mandatory evacuations the material damage was extensive. Homes, schools, hospitals, roads, crops were all ravaged by the successive storms with the Cuban government placing the total economic impact at five billion dollars.

Gibara is a small coastal town in the Eastern provinces of Cuba which suffered terribly during the storms. Known as the White City for it's distinctive white buildings, many of them were either swept into the sea by the force of the wind and waves, or so heavily damaged that they are now uninhabitable. Four months after the storms the city was still struggling to recover: the road along the shore was marked with sections that had caved in, with the ocean continuing to chip away at them. Where houses once stood only concrete slabs remained, with little surrounding debris: a piece of wall perhaps, or chimney. When I asked people if the rubble had been cleaned up they usually shook their heads, and made a sweeping gesture toward the sea, indicating that the hurricanes had washed everything away. Even the town's Soviet inspired housing blocks, mammoths of poured concrete and rebar weren't immune. While still standing they were left beaten with broken storm shutters and gapping windows.

Gibara is just one of many countless towns hit hard by these storms, many suffering even worse damage. Some of the residents in Gibara were told by government officials it would take a year to get them back in their own homes, but given the extent of the damage most felt it would take much, much longer.
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