Neighbors of La Cuchilla were cut off this Friday after a rise in the river swept away the drawbridge connecting the town to the rest of the municipality Palma Soriano, in Santiago de Cuba.
The complaint was posted this Friday in the Facebook group Revolico Palma Soriano by the neighbor Yerlenis Vicet Maturell, who demanded an urgent solution to a situation that recurs every time it rains heavily.
"The neighbors of Poblado 2 de la Cuchilla in Palma Soriano are cut off. After two hours of rain, the river rose and washed away the drawbridge, leaving us with no way to cross. It has been a year since the cyclone, and they still haven't built a bridge. Now, look at how the neighbors are getting by, risking slipping and falling. They need to find a way to urgently solve this," wrote Maturell.
The images accompanying the post show murky brown water overflowing among tropical vegetation of plantains and bananas, with visible power lines over the swollen river.
The problem has its roots in the Melissa cyclone, which made landfall in the Santiago de Cuba area during the early hours of October 29, 2025, with winds exceeding 200 km/h in Palma Soriano.
The hurricane destroyed road and rail infrastructure in Palma Soriano, overflowed the Charco Mono dam after recording over 150 millimeters of rain in less than an hour, and caused widespread damage to homes, schools, and health centers.
A year later, the reconstruction of basic infrastructure in rural communities of the municipality is still pending.
The report comes amid a new episode of heavy rain affecting eastern Cuba in mid-November 2026, with warnings from the Cuban Meteorological Institute for strong and persistent rainfall in the central and eastern regions.
The community of La Cuchilla has been accumulating multiple complaints in recent months. Its residents had publicly raised their voices after a 15-day blackout which was only resolved due to the pressure from citizens on social media.
In the municipality, they had also reported more than six months without receiving water regularly through the networks, a situation that has forced them to resort to water trucks and other alternatives to supply their homes.
The situation in La Cuchilla illustrates the structural neglect faced by rural communities in eastern Cuba: without a permanent bridge, stable electricity, or running water, residents are at the mercy of every heavy rainfall, while authorities provide no concrete answers or timelines for reconstruction.
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