Havana floods as Irma moves on
Back end of storm does major damage in Cuba
HAVANA — Powerful waves and storm surge from Hurricane Irma topped Havana’s iconic Malecon seawall and left thousands of homes, businesses and hotels swamped Sunday, even as the storm moved away from the island.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities in Cuba, where the government prides itself on disaster preparedness and said it had evacuated more than 1 million people.
Authorities warned that the floodwaters could linger for more than a day, and there was uncalculated damage to sugarcane and banana fields in central Cuba and to northern cays studded with all-inclusive resorts, potentially dealing a major blow to the country’s key tourism industry.
The storm ripped roofs off homes, collapsed buildings and caused floods along hundreds of miles of coast after cutting a trail of destruction across the Caribbean. Irma has killed at least 24 people in the region, leaving officials scrambling to bring aid to shattered communities.
In Havana, home to some 2 million residents, central neighborhoods along the coast between the Almendares River and Havana harbor suffered the brunt of the flooding, with seawater penetrating as much as one-third of a mile inland in places.
Waves as high as 20 feet continued to pound Havana, with the spray topping the lighthouse at the Morro fortress on the entrance to the bay, and Civil Defense Col. Luis Angel Macareno warned that the flooding would persist into Monday.
Emergency workers and residents boated and waded through streets littered with toppled trees, downed electrical lines, roofs torn off by the winds and cement water tanks that fell from atop homes.
Elena Villar and her mother spent the night huddling in the lobby of a building on higher ground as her home of 30 years filled with more than 6 feet of water.
“I have lost everything,” she said, on the edge of tears.
Floodwaters entered the high-end Melia Cohiba and Riviera hotels, where the storm damaged the buildings, landscaping and roofing.
Water and wind damaged the seaside U.S. Embassy, tossing around shipping containers that sit on the compound, smashing parts of its black perimeter fence, ripping exterior panels from the building and breaking windows and doors. The embassy’s flag was in tatters fluttering from its staff Sunday.
Hector Pulpito recounted a harrowing night at his job as night custodian of a parking lot that flooded five blocks from the sea in the Vedado neighborhood.
“I felt great fear. This was the worst of the storms I have been through, and the sea rose much higher,” Pulpito said. “The trees were shaking. Metal roofs went flying.”
State television reported severe damage to hotels on the northern cays off Ciego de Avila and Camaguey provinces.
Witnesses said a provincial museum near the eye of the storm was in ruins, and authorities in the city of Santa Clara said 39 buildings collapsed.
The Communist Party newspaper Granma reported that the Jardines del Rey airport serving the northern cays was destroyed and posted photos to Twitter showing the shattered terminal hall littered with debris.
In Caibarien, a small coastal city about 200 miles east of Havana where many residents stayed put to ride out the storm, winds downed power lines and neighborhoods were under water.
In the well-known resort enclave of Varadero, on Cuba’s north coast about two hours’ drive east of Havana, hotels experienced only minor damage to structures such as windows and roofs, tourism official Ivis Fernandez told reporters.
Fernandez added that 17,000 tourists rode out the storm there, including more than 3,000 who were part of an evacuation of keys farther to the east that took a direct blow from Irma.
Similar scenes played out across the Caribbean, where the storm devastated islands before setting its sights on Florida.