67 Havana buildings collapse, many structures in unstable condition

Ray Sanchez:
67 Havana buildings collapse, many structures in unstable condition
Ike leaves many structures in weakened state
By Ray Sanchez | Havana Bureau
September 11, 2008

HAVANA - Ike's true fury may only be starting to show.

From the water-logged eastern provinces, where mudslides and rising
waters kept hundreds of thousands of evacuees away from their homes, to
the dilapidated tenements disintegrating in its wake, the fierce
hurricane continued to punish Cuba long after it churned away into the
distance.

Cuba's official media Wednesday night reported 67 building collapses in
this densely populated capital — 60 partially ruined, and seven
destroyed — brought down by a combination of age, decay, neglect and
Hurricane Ike's torrential downpours and winds.

Just one day earlier, officials said 16 structures had given way to the
storm, including four aged buildings in a single block that crumbled
into rubble.

In its 41-hour odyssey across much of Cuba, Ike left a widespread swath
of destruction nearly the full length of the island and claimed the
lives of four people outside the nation's capital.

On Wednesday, nearly 16 hours after Ike's center had moved off toward
the Gulf of Mexico, it took its fifth.

Shortly after 8 a.m., a concrete chunk of an adjoining building crashed
through the roof of a tenement fronting Havana's Malecon, triggering a
chain reaction that toppled sections of floor after floor. Six hours
later, emergency crews found 52-year-old Pedro Pablo Gonzalez's body,
buried under three stories of rubble.

Electrical power is out across much of the island, communications
spotty. As many as 140,000 homes are damaged or destroyed, rain-swollen
rivers have overflowed their banks, mudslides and felled trees block roads.

The catastrophic one-two punch delivered by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike,
which struck Cuba just eight days apart, could result in billions of
dollars of damage for the cash-starved island, according to preliminary
estimates.

But even as rebuilding and relief efforts began, Cubans know Ike may
still have more in store.

In Granma, heavy rains filled dams beyond capacity, keeping more than
340,000 people away from their homes.

In western Pinar del Rio reservoir levels splashed dangerously close to
overflowing, threatening to flood nearby communities and roads, state
media said.

In Havana, which occupies less than 1 percent of the country's territory
but is home to about 20 percent of Cuba's 11 million inhabitants, much
of the city's aging, poorly maintained housing stock is in precarious
condition. Buildings collapse in much lesser storms, and more may come
down as the weakened cement dries.

A section of the decrepit building that set off the collapse that killed
Pedro Pablo Gonzalez on Wednesday had itself tumbled to the ground in April.

Eleven families were forced into the street, and the building was left
vacant and abandoned — but neither repaired nor torn down.

"They knew this would happen," said Tania Castillo. "It was only a
matter of time."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flbcubaike0911sbsep11,0,7499005.story