Ten days after the deadly Hurricane Ian slammed through the majority of Cuba, on Friday, the Associated Press of America kept an eye on the situation there. It confirmed that many Cubans still lack access to basic necessities including water, electricity, and food.
The organisation claimed, in the context of a study it had previously released, that “Ian’s” devastation had made people’s problems worse who had already been struggling with scarcity and a lack of resources.
In La Coloma, a fishing and industrial town on the Cuban coast that has been most severely affected by the hurricane, people are cooking over wood fires while soldiers fix the roofs of destroyed homes in the capital city of Havana and hoist electricity poles under the hot sun. Teachers are also taking out wet textbooks.
According to the agency, only 15% of inhabitants in the western province of Pinar del Rio had access to electricity, and in La Coloma, a town of roughly 7,000 people located 125 miles (200 km) southwest of Havana, the lights were all but nonexistent.
Numerous electrical currents from Cuba’s already flimsy electricity grid were among the reasons that the island’s largest social unrest in decades broke out in July 2021. At that time, thousands of people were fed up with nationwide blackouts and shortages of goods that were made worse by the Corona epidemic and US sanctions.
Three people were murdered and approximately 63,000 dwellings were demolished in Pinar del Ro region following Hurricane Ian’s recent visit, which hit the Caribbean nation on September 27 with gusts of more than 125 mph (200 kph). More than 30,000 people were evacuated before the typhoon hit, which not only hit Pinar de Ro but also the provinces of Artemisa, Mayapeque, and Havana.
The Cuban Ministry of Agriculture reported that Ian damaged 8,583 hectares (21,210 acres) of crops in the three provinces, primarily bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes, corn, rice, and tomatoes. These crops included dwellings, electrical infrastructure, and industry infrastructure. The Associated Press also noted that Cuba’s GDP only increased by 2% in 2021 after declining by 11% in 2020 as a result of the pandemic’s effects.
While US sanctions continue to put strain on the island’s economy, tourism has not recovered from the paralysis of travel restrictions related to fighting COVID-19.
Many Cubans are still without electricity or water 10 days after Hurricane Ian.
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