This year’s first rain in June destroyed 146 buildings in Havana
Havana:
“When we go to sleep, it’s for fear of not getting up again,” says Alyssa Bassian, who lives in one of the nearly 700 apartment buildings deemed unsafe in the Cuban capital, where collapses often occur. .
Bassian, 51, lives alone with her 12-year-old daughter, Lesanis, in an old town building called “Edificio Cuba,” which dates back to the 1940s.
The six-story building belongs to the state of Cuba, like most others on the communist island. It has 114 small rooms in which 92 families live without rent.
Residents say it used to be a beautiful hotel.
Today, floor planks are broken, ceilings, pillars and passage walls reveal twisted metal skeletons, and cracks and leaks abound.
The children “can’t even play here, because over and over again a piece (of the building) comes down,” said Bassian, tears in his eyes.
“I have already lost a child”, due to illness, Basien told AFP. “I don’t want to lose my daughter either.”
– ‘not recommended’ –
Due to a lack of inspection and maintenance, buildings in Havana completely or partially collapse with alarming frequency, even more so during the rainy and hurricane season from June to November.
In 2020, a balcony gave way, killing three young girls.
According to official media, the first rain of June this year caused 146 buildings in the capital to partially collapse and two completely collapsed, resulting in the death of a 69-year-old man.
No one knows who will be next.
Official figures show that about 37 percent of the 3.9 million residential buildings in the country were considered to be in undesirable condition by the end of 2020.
A building expert, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, told AFP that Bassian’s home, “Edificio Cuba”, had “floor-to-ceiling structural defects.”
“It is not recommended that people stay there.”
In this building, as in many others, the temporary addition of the mezzanine, bathrooms and water tanks significantly increases the load they were built to withstand.
– ‘No answer’ –
Carrie Suarez, 57, moved to “Edificio Cuba” in 1997, when her previous apartment block became one of the figures in the collapse.
She was taking her children to school, but her mother, who was at home, died.
“It’s very difficult to live it all and live on the verge of a collapse,” she said.
Francesca Pea, 54, has sought relief from the authorities on behalf of residents.
“We have exhausted all avenues and have not received any response,” she told AFP.
Pea said she sleeps fully clothed if she has to “run out” in the middle of the night.
It has happened several times, he said, that residents run into the street after hearing a suspicious “noise”.
“I have dark circles under my eyes, I can’t sleep, I’m waiting for a section (of the building) to close,” said social worker Luvia Diaz, 50, who lives on the top floor. “Edificio Cuba” with his partner, three daughters and a grandson.
Earlier this month, a piece of the ceiling of her bedroom fell on an empty bed due to rain.
“If my daughter had been sleeping there, it would have been a tragedy,” she said.
Another resident, who only identified herself as “Pampa”, had a portion of the building collapsed 29 years ago, when she was just two years old.
A piece of roof hit his head and Pampa had to undergo complex cranial reconstruction surgery, he told AFP while cleaning his apartment.
“I’m afraid to be here… I won’t be saved the second time around,” she said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)