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A photograph taken in Santiago de Cuba during Hurricane Melissa is making headlines around the world: in it, a man wades through waist-deep water while holding an old television, trying to save it from the current.
His gesture, interpreted as a mix of resistance and despair, has become the human symbol of the tragedy occurring in eastern Cuba.
The photo was taken by the photographer Yamil Lage for the news agency AFP, and is part of a series of images that document the devastation caused by the powerful hurricane Melissa, which hit Santiago de Cuba on Wednesday, October 29, 2025.
Other takes from the same moment, published by the AP agency (Author: Ramón Espinosa), show two men (one of them the person in the television photo) walking through the murky waters in uniforms that appear to belong to the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), which has sparked debate over whether they are rescue workers or local residents.
However, the agency assures that the man lived in the flooded house and was trying to recover his belongings and his dog.
One of the photographs shows that they managed to pull out a mattress and several belongings, and in another, they can be seen rescuing a dog and a fan atop a metal sheet.
A scene that reflects the harshness of life in Cuba
The actor Facundo —known for his character in Vivir del Cuento on Cuban television— reacted emotionally upon seeing the image and published a message on social media: “If anyone knows him, please pass on my phone number 239-470-8181”, in an attempt to reach out to the person in the photo to offer assistance.
The image, shared thousands of times, has sparked a wave of comments on social media, where many Cubans relate to the supposed desperation of that man who is apparently trying to save what little he has or is on a rescue mission.
"How sad, they lost their belongings and in Cuba it is very difficult to recover anything material due to the unattainable prices," commented a user on Facebook.
"I understand that preserving life is the most important thing, but it is painful to see how people lose their material possessions. Some will never be able to recover them, because in Cuba it is very difficult to acquire a television or a refrigerator," another person added.
A symbol of devastation in eastern Cuba
The photograph was taken in the municipality of Santiago de Cuba, one of the areas most affected by Hurricane Melissa. The waters of the San Juan River overflowed and flooded entire neighborhoods, leaving hundreds of families with their homes destroyed and without electricity.
According to official reports, more than 735,000 people were evacuated throughout the eastern region.
The hurricane Melissa made landfall in eastern Cuba in the early hours of Wednesday, after hitting Jamaica as a category 5 cyclone with winds of up to 295 km/h.
In Cuba, the damage was catastrophic: roofs torn off, homes collapsed, roads blocked, and entire communities under water.
The images disseminated by international agencies such as AP, AFP, and Reuters illustrate the extent of the disaster and the precariousness with which Cubans face the recovery.
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