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The Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Alfonso General Hospital, one of the main medical centers in Santiago de Cuba, suffered severe structural damage after Hurricane Melissa swept through the province with winds exceeding 190 km/h in the early hours of Wednesday.
The images shared by the institution itself on its page depict a devastating scene: detached roofs, torn doors, shattered windows, glass scattered on the ground, and fallen trees within the hospital premises.
The hallways were covered with water and debris, and the wind swept into several locations, causing destruction.
"These are shocking and heartbreaking images. Melissa, as if sent from the underworld, has wreaked havoc in our hospital," the center acknowledged in its statement.
Nevertheless, he assured that calm was maintained throughout the night and that the admitted patients were successfully safeguarded.
However, the message, concluded with a tone of "unity and victory," fails to conceal the magnitude of the disaster or the vulnerability of the Cuban healthcare system today, which is increasingly deteriorated and unable to cope with phenomena of this magnitude.
An announced collapse
The incident contradicts the government's statements made just two days before the hurricane's impact, when the Ministry of Public Health assured that the hospitals in Santiago were "prepared" for Melissa's passage, with inspected generators, guaranteed supplies, and reinforced medical staff.
Reality has shown the opposite.
Years of neglect, lack of maintenance, leaks, and chronic shortages of building materials have turned the hospitals in the region into frail structures, unable to withstand hurricane winds.
In the case of Juan Bruno Zayas, its metal coverings and deteriorated windows came down easily.
Before Melissa, the healthcare system was already facing an unprecedented crisis: a shortage of essential medications, a lack of surgical supplies, constant power outages, and the migration of hundreds of specialist doctors abroad.
Recent viral outbreaks, combined with hospital overcrowding and a lack of sanitary conditions, have pushed many healthcare centers to the brink of collapse.
In this context, the hurricane not only destroyed physical infrastructure but also exposed the moral and material ruin of a system that the State insists on presenting as a model of efficiency and humanity, while the workers themselves face endless shifts and basic shortages to care for their patients.
Santiago de Cuba, a devastated province
The president of the Provincial Defense Council, Beatriz Johnson acknowledged that the situation in Santiago "is very complex".
"We felt it was our duty to inform the population of our country about the very complex situation in the province. It is raining heavily across the province of Santiago de Cuba. The winds are indeed quite significant," he said.
Melissa made landfall near Aserradero, in the Guamá municipality, at 3:05 a.m., then advanced towards Palma Soriano, San Luis, and the city of Santiago, where the hospital suffered the greatest impact.
"In the coming hours, when the winds calm down a bit, we will have a better understanding of the situation," he added.
Flooded streets, torn roofs, fallen trees and power poles make up the overall scene in the eastern capital.
In El Cobre, the local river swept away homes and public buildings; in Palma Soriano, the overflow of the Charco Mono dam left rural communities underwater.
The University of Oriente also sustained structural damage, and much of the public lighting and urban transport went out of service.
With accumulated rainfall exceeding 250 millimeters in some areas, rescue brigades have barely been able to access several outlying neighborhoods, while thousands of families remain cut off from communication.
A reflection of the national crisis
The disaster at the Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Alfonso General Hospital has become a symbol of the country's fragility in the face of natural disasters.
The lack of public investment, the collapse of basic services, and the scarcity of resources have left the population helpless, without the tools to protect themselves or to recover.
While the official discourse insists on speaking of "unity, discipline, and victory," the images of the hospital with collapsed roofs and cracked walls tell a very different story: that of a healthcare system crumbling, victim to time, neglect, and the lack of accountability from a government that can no longer hide the deterioration of its foundations.
As the hurricane recedes and official promises are repeated, Santiago de Cuba wakes up once again devastated, trying to restore its basic services and its hope.
But, as so many times before, the reconstruction seems to depend more on the resilience of the people than on the effectiveness of the institutions.
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