A young woman living in the municipality of Campechuela, in the province of Granma, showcased some of the damage caused by the earthquakes on November 10 to her home and that of her neighbor, and she criticized the lack of attention from the authorities towards the affected families.
The Cuban Shakira Castillo Pérez shared photos in the Facebook group "We Are from Campechuela" showing the cracks that appeared in the walls, ceilings, and structures of homes due to the impact of the earthquakes measuring 6 and 6.7 that occurred the previous Sunday in eastern Cuba.
“Look, my people, at how my house and my neighbor’s house turned out after the earthquakes that occurred on November 10th, 2024. (…) No one has cared to find out the damage caused to the people of Campechuela, and if they bother to come, it's for this reason that I'm sharing this,” Castillo said in his post.
Concerned about the risk posed by the damage to the building's structure, the young woman revealed that there is an elderly person and a pregnant woman living in her home.
"And just like in these two houses, there are more in worse situations, and no one is providing answers," he warned.
The National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS) reported that, as of Sunday morning, 4,060 aftershocks from the earthquakes on November 10 have been recorded, of which approximately 101 were likely perceptible to the population living near the active zone, southeast of the municipality of Pilón in Granma province.
In a recent report, the Cuban government revealed that 8,612 homes have been preliminarily reported as damaged by the earthquakes, of which 156 have completely collapsed and 5,968 show minor damages.
According to official statistics, as a result of the impact of hurricanes Oscar and Rafael, along with the two earthquakes that occurred last Sunday, approximately 46,400 homes were damaged in the provinces affected by these natural events: Guantánamo, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Granma.
The Minister of Construction, René Mesa Villafaña, reported that over 80% of the damage caused by hurricanes to homes "is concentrated in partial and total damage to roofs," and he believes this could expedite the recovery process.
However, he pointed out that, in the case of the damage caused by the earthquakes, "the certification work is more thorough and is being carried out by experts in the field (engineers, architects)."
The recent earthquakes in eastern Cuba revealed an alarming reality: the high vulnerability of numerous buildings in the country to moderate or large seismic events.
This problem not only affects Granma, the epicenter of the earthquakes, but also other provinces exposed to seismic activity, highlighting the urgent need to improve the quality and safety of construction in the country.
Eberto Hernández Suros, a geological engineer and coordinator of the National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS) in the province of Granma, emphasized that the deficiencies in the quality of numerous buildings are largely a result of violations of the seismic code in effect in Cuba since 2017.
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