“In Sancti Spíritus we are not used to landslides,” lamented a resident of this city in central Cuba who was looking at the damage that the collapse of two balconies left early Tuesday morning in the building located on the central corner of Avenida de los Mártires and Adolfo del Castillo street.
“Luckily there were no injuries, despite the fact that the precautionary barrier that indicated the danger had been removed since May 1,” explained the local newspaper Escambraythe same official medium that only three months ago reported that the eaves of the building were at risk of collapse, due to lack of maintenance for years.
The building, built in 1948, and with the El Pargo fishmonger on the ground floor, had deteriorated over the years and, despite complaints from neighbors, it was never repaired. The steel of the perimeter edges of the roof especially suffered from corrosion, but due to the claims of its residents, the authorities justified the lack of action due to the lack of construction materials.
Local Housing officials then warned that there was no budget to carry out the work: “It is not included in the maintenance plan for the year and there is no force to carry out the actions.” Instead, they recommended the residents of the building “not to go out on the balconies to prevent the weight and vibrations when walking from causing new detachments of the damaged concrete.”
“They cleaned the rubble very quickly, but it would have been better if they had had that speed to prevent it from falling,” a nearby resident told this newspaper. “It is a very busy place, a misfortune could have occurred. Right there, a few steps away, there is a place where virtual purchases are collected,” she adds.
With a city made up mostly of one-story buildings and a relatively well-preserved heritage center, Sancti Spiritus have believed for years that the collapse of balconies and roofs is “something that only happens in Havana,” explains Manuel, who was born on Adolfo del Castillo, a few meters from the collapse.
But since this Friday the certainty that the landslides are something distant has evaporated in the mind of this 68-year-old man. “Now we have the worst of the capital but without any of its benefits: Havana-style landslides and Sancti Spiritus-style blackouts,” he says, suspicious that power outages are not as extensive or frequent in the Cuban capital.
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