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The tropical storm Melissa is maintaining its strength in the central Caribbean and could impact eastern Cuba in the coming days with heavy rains, winds, and rising tides, according to reports from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
However, long before the first drop falls, the country is already feeling the disaster.
The writer and activist from Santiago, Yasser Sosa Tamayo, published a text this Thursday on Facebook that depicts the extreme vulnerability with which Cuba awaits the arrival of Melissa.
“Not even a drop of rain has fallen, and already the country looks like it does after a disaster. Melissa is coming from the east, not as a visitor: but as a judgment,” she wrote.
The heartfelt message from the activist portrays, in a tone that is both poetic and heart-wrenching, a country unprotected in the face of the storm.
"The country is bare to receive it: empty warehouses, basic goods stuck in some hidden stockpile, roofs sewn together with faith, walls standing more out of habit than concrete," he lamented.
Sosa also warned about the forthcoming health and environmental collapse: “Everyone is getting sick among mountains of garbage and sewage. There is no ambulance service or money for taxis. There are no medicines for managing chronic diseases or for confronting the circulating viruses. The water hasn't even fallen yet, and it's already causing illness.”
As Melissa continues to move slowly to the north-northwest with sustained winds of 75 km/h, the NHC warns that the storm could become a hurricane on Saturday and reach greater intensity on Sunday, with a risk of heavy rainfall and landslides in eastern Cuba.
The activist's text concludes with a call for solidarity in light of institutional neglect: “Those who have a roof, provide shelter. Those who have food, share it. Those who have a voice, speak out. Those who have hands, offer help. Because if we do not save each other, then no one will save us.”
In the comments section, he added: "It's not a time to look: it's a time to move the body."
Moreover, from the humanistic vocation that characterizes him, he emphasized: “If you know someone who is homeless, without food, without family, or without a way to protect themselves. Act today, not later. Share, tag, offer help, open your door, donate what you can. The storm is already coming; let it not find us with our arms crossed.”
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