Forty-five years after passing through Dominican territory, Hurricane Davidaround 300 families still remain in dilapidated shacks rotted by woodworm and time, in Canta La Rana and Los Barracones, in the municipality of Los Alcarrizos, in Santo Domingo.
This August 31 marks 45 years since the scourge of this phenomenon, which ravaged the entire national territory with fury, destroyed agricultural crops, demolished homes and caused the death of dozens of people.
Both in Canta La Rana and in The barracks are damagedwho live in extreme poverty, sick, without sources of work, so many live on the solidarity of their neighbors.
Naturally, unhealthiness in these places is a permanent threat, especially since there are no adequate sanitary systems, which means that some people relieve themselves in holes inside and outside the dilapidated houses, while others use bags that they then throw into landfills, almost always behind the houses.
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Dolores Cuevaspresident of the Alfa y Omega neighborhood association in Canta La Rana, said that 200 families still live in the shacks that were built 45 years ago, with the promise that in six months they would be moved to safe places.
He lamented that the country has been governed by four presidents since the hurricane, but that none of them has acted to solve the problem for the victims.
Although apartments were built for those affected, most of them ended up in the hands of close associates of the ruling government, he said.
He requested the president Luis Abinader to arrange for the intervention of the barracks, with new wood or concrete, to provide them with adequate toilets and to help these families through social assistance programs.
Beatriz Báez was born in one of the barracks. Her parents have already passed away, but, despite the calamities, she has not been favored, although she was registered for an apartment when the projects were built in the first government of Leonel Fernandez.
She said that at the time of delivery she was left off the list of beneficiaries.
She gave birth to seven children in the barracks and now has 20 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren in the midst of the unsanitary conditions that surround the place, but she has not lost hope of being helped by the Government.
Belkis Jiménez, president of the Los Barracones neighborhood association, estimates that around 90 families are still waiting for help from the authorities, because when it rains a lot, they have to abandon their shacks.
The community leader suggested to the Government, to help once and for all, the victims of the Hurricane David.
