The recovery tasks of Pinar del Río after the passage of Ian never end. Almost 50 days have passed since the hurricane made landfall in La Coloma, one of the westernmost points of the island, and there are still 3,673 people without electricity, according to the latest update published this Sunday by the Electricity Company in the province.
Pinar del Río has, according to official data, 235,311 clients, of which 231,638 (98.44%) have recovered electricity. But in San Juan y Martínez, the island’s tobacco cradle, and San Luis, the majority of people without service continue to be concentrated.
“We buy the food of the day, because if you do it for two or three days it will spoil. We have to go to Pinar del Río (22 kilometers away) and get it to the left or in MLC (freely convertible currency) because there are none in the warehouse,” a resident of San Juan y Martínez told the Spanish news agency EFE this weekend.
“We buy the food of the day, because if you do it for two or three days it will spoil. We have to go to Pinar del Río and get it on the left or in MLC because there are none in the warehouse”
In his house, where the kitchen is, like so many in Cuba, electric, he has spent more than a month buying coal and oil or cutting firewood to cook.
But it is not the only one of the shortcomings that this report has reflected on the situation in Pinar del Río. José Ariel continues with his house half collapsed and complete indignation. The Pinar del Río received the first government visit a day before being interviewed by EFE and the result could not be worse.
“We said we needed cement but (they said) there wasn’t. They told us: ‘you already have a roof, you’re already living’ and they don’t give you anything,” laments this fisherman who managed to put some zinc plates as a cover with the help of some neighbors and that now he must nail wood to the windows to be able to support the holes.
“We paid about 2,500 pesos for some pipes that came here,” he added. In his case, the light has been back for two weeks, but the rest is a disaster.
Caridad Martínez, a 79-year-old resident of San Juan y Martínez who survives by selling bee honey on the porch of her house, explained that her bed is soaked because she cannot get cement to glue the sheets of her roof.
“They told me that they didn’t need to give me anything,” said the retiree, who was also outraged at the resellers who proliferate in networks trying to place the construction materials that they manage to obtain illegally at unbearable prices. “They are not ashamed, you see that it is already difficult to get things, but this is taking advantage of people’s needs,” he explained.
The Government recently recognized that it would be very difficult to obtain all the materials for the reconstruction of the more than 108,000 houses partially or totally destroyed by the hurricane in the short term and that only 7,000 have been repaired.
“More than a month after the hurricane, we are still discussing the same problems that we tackled on the first day,” Esteban Lazo said last weekend in one of the many visits leaders have made to the area, possibly in an attempt to calm the waters
This same Sunday, Miguel Díaz-Canel sent a message through Twitter to the people of Pinar del Río that contrasts with some of the testimonies that can be read in the claims that neighbors leave on networks, press comments or complaints to the press.
His bed is soaking wet because he can’t get cement to glue down his roof tiles. “They told me that there was no need to give me anything,” said the retiree
“The recovery from the damage caused by Hurricane Ian continues. In Cuba, no one is left homeless,” said the president, sharing a tweet from the Minister of Energy and Mines in which he had written: “We continue to work until we reach everyone. Our workers have experienced the love of a people that knows solidarity and commitment”.
Vicente de la O Levy, head of the branch after the dismissal of Liván Arronte, indicated that until Saturday 97.74% of the clients already had electricity and advanced the departure of the Santiago de Cuba linemen, who have been for weeks trying to recover the fallen poles and the kilometers of destroyed cables in Pinar del Río.
“What I still don’t understand is why in Mantua, which was little affected, they don’t restore, and even more so having the municipal generating plants. They should do something, because we know it, as we also know that they use the benefits as they please”, claimed a Facebook user to the province’s electricity company.
“Please, can someone tell me when they are going to turn on the Pepe Chepe cast, who came to La Espa and left us?” says another. “Will they deign to at least go through the P 990 circuit on Calle Sol? Of so many brigades distributed in Pinar, one could at least go by to say,” adds another.
And the worst thing is that the people of Pinar del Rio know that the problems, the day the current arrives, are far from over, as another user recalled “They are crazy to reach 100% to start with the scheduled blackouts.”
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
