Ángel Ruiz Estérico, a resident of the Clodomira neighborhood in the town of El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba, reported in a video that five months after Hurricane Melissa, he continues to live without a roof, without a door, and without medical attention, while the State is conspicuously absent.
The cyclone Melissa made landfall on October 29, 2025 in the municipality of Guamá as a category 3 hurricane, with sustained winds of up to 195 km/h. It affected more than three million people in the eastern provinces of Cuba, destroyed approximately 160,000 homes, and forced the evacuation of more than 735,000 individuals.
Ninety percent of the village of El Cobre was devastated. Ruiz lost the roof, the door, the window, and part of the electrical wiring from his home, and since then he has been living among the debris of what he was able to salvage.
"I live with the little I have managed to salvage, to take shelter in a room, because the hurricane took my roof, took my door, the patio door, the window, and part of the electrical cables were also damaged," the affected individual recounted.
"I haven't received help from the government, but I have from the church. We have had food and medicine, both for Christians and for those who are not," Ángel expressed.
Your case is not isolated: the state abandonment following Hurricane Melissa has been reported by multiple families in the region.
The community of El Cobre has relied heavily on international aid to survive. Nearly 500 families from El Cobre received humanitarian aid from the United States channeled through Caritas, while the Cuban government has been criticized for its slow response.
The Catholic Church and international organizations have played a crucial role in assisting those affected.
Humanitarian projects have distributed medicines among those affected and have called for more international support, given the scarcity of medical resources that Ruiz is also facing in his situation.
The Sanctuary of El Cobre is recovering gradually after the cyclone's damage, although for thousands of residents like Ángel Ruiz, the reconstruction of their homes remains an unfulfilled promise almost five months after the disaster.
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