In order to accommodate the family in the “waste warehouse”, it was necessary to remove tons of waste.
MIAMI, United States. – A surviving family of the collapse of the building on Compostela streetbetween Muralla and Sol, in Old Havana, was moved to a “garbage warehouse” located in front of the collapsed building, and where they live in “worse conditions than before,” according to what they told CubaNet.
After the accident, which occurred around 2:15 am last Sunday, the authorities moved the family to a warehouse in front of the building, a place that for years was occupied by a collector of raw materials and garbage, and that had to be hurriedly emptied of waste and debris to convert it into an improvised shelter, reported several family members interviewed by a reporter from CubaNet in Havana.
The displaced family is made up of a 52-year-old woman, her brother, her daughter and her four minor grandchildren. They all managed to save their lives because “they were on the side of ahead of the building” when the collapse occurred, it occurred in the rear and interior of the building.
In order to accommodate the family in the “waste warehouse,” it was necessary to remove tons of waste. “On Monday afternoon, four trucks of garbage and debris were taken out,” said the collaborator of CubaNet.
Meanwhile, other survivors of the collapse who lived on the first floor of the collapsed building, “had to remain for hours without a dignified solution.”
The children’s mother maintains that the assigned place is even more precarious than the house that collapsed. The collaborator summarized his words: “The place where they have been taken has no conditions; the conditions are critical, it is worse than where they were, where they lived.”
The collapse occurred this Sunday, November 16, around 2:15 in the morning, when the second floor of the building located on Compostela Street, between Sol and Muralla, in Old Havana, partially collapsed. Several people lived in the building.
“In the place, as a result of the collapse of the second floor, citizens Carlos Fidel Sánchez Díaz, 38 years old, and citizen Sara Paula Díaz, 64 years old, mother and son, died,” confirmed the official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso.
Images sent to the editorial office of CubaNet They show authorities and rescuers working at the scene of the tragedy. The collaborator of CubaNet He explained that one of the deceased “was a worker at the National CTC for 55 years.” Regarding her, he added: “That woman was going to Housing to have the issue of her house resolved, which leaked when it rained, and the problem was never resolved.”
According to the same source, the woman was seen in the neighborhood as a militant loyal to the system. “How is it possible that this government has let that lady die there in such precarious conditions?” the neighbors now question, according to the collaborator of CubaNet.
Complaints about the state of the building were not new. A neighbor who asked not to be identified stated that “he had been going to the house for years to make a complaint that it could collapse, until everything collapsed.”
The collapse adds to a chain of structural collapses that, in recent years, have hit Havana, marked by the deterioration of buildings, the shortage of construction materials and the lack of systematic maintenance by the State, in contrast to the unstoppable construction of hotels.
At the end of September, very close to the address of this incident, but on Sol Street, the collapse of another building left several people trapped.
The Cuban Government has recognized that about 1,000 homes collapse in the capital every year, a situation that has caused the death of adults and children.
The lack of adequate housing has led many families to live in collective shelters run by the Government, which lack basic resources. Other people choose to return to buildings in poor condition, despite the risk of collapse, due to the terrible conditions of these shelters.
On September 16, a partial collapse was also reported in a building located at the intersection of Industria and San Rafael streets, in the Centro Habana municipality. The incident left three people injured—one adult and two minors—and prompted the preventive evacuation of neighbors. as reported the Municipal Administration Council (CAM) of Central Havana on its Facebook page.
