By Rosa Miriam Elizalde on November 6, 2025
Residents of El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba province, travel in a horse-drawn cart alongside fallen power lines after Hurricane Melissa came through. foto: AFP
An eloquent paradox. On October 29, two people died in New York, trapped in a basement by autumn rains; that same day, the worst hurricane in decades swept through eastern Cuba, without a single fatality.
The difference is not insignificant. It can be explained by the organizational capacity of a country trained to face the annual hurricane season, which is becoming increasingly fierce under the impact of climate change. In the Caribbean, a region excessively punished by natural phenomena, seven out of 10 people live near the coast and almost all of its major cities are less than 1.5 kilometers from the sea.
“The damn circumstance of water everywhere,” as the poet Virgilio Piñera referred to when evoking Cuba, became painfully true. A week after Melissa passed, the material toll is devastating. The east of the island, where the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Holguín, Granma, and Las Tunas are located, has the densest river networks in the country—such as the Cauto and Toa river basins—in mountainous areas where dozens of smaller streams converge, which, in recent days, have experienced historic flooding.
In just 24 hours, the reservoirs in that area received more than 100 million cubic meters of water. The Cauto River overflowed its banks and rose to the roofs of houses. More than 240 communities were cut off by flooding, landslides, and telecommunications network outages. With maximum sustained winds of around 195 kilometers per hour, thousands of houses lost their roofs and structures, while destroyed roads on the south coast of Santiago—including the Uvero bridge, which was swept away by the sea—left villages isolated for days.
Many agree that Melissa is the most devastating hurricane since Flora (1963), when 1,800 people died in torrential rains. Today, thanks to the national Civil Defense system, recognized by the UN as one of the most efficient in the world, Cuba has managed to reduce the death toll to zero. In just 48 hours, more than 700,000 people were evacuated in an orderly manner, while schools, workplaces, and private homes were transformed into shelters, and emergency communications and prior drills made it possible to anticipate scenarios.
Despite this efficiency, the catastrophe is visible. The UN resident coordinator for Cuba, Francisco Pichón, reported that around 2 million people are in great need of shelter, food, drinking water, and medical care. “Cuba needs broad international support,” he said, “but it has been excluded from international financial institutions due to the US blockade and sanctions. This makes it extremely difficult to finance the disaster response.” His words reflect that the Caribbean nation has not been hit by a single hurricane, but two—Melissa and the blockade—one natural and the other political and economic, both devastating.
However, in the face of Washington’s intended isolation, solidarity is on the move. Numerous countries and international organizations, as well as local governments, relatives inside and outside the island, and the general public have mobilized to bring aid to the victims. In many neighborhoods in western and central Cuba, collection points for clothing, medicine, and food are still active, and neighbors are sharing what little they have with their brothers and sisters in the east.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Florida Straits, the discourse has been as predictable as it is cynical. Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, initially posted a message about the devastation caused by Melissa in Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. He did not mention Cuba. The next day, faced with evidence of the devastation and media pressure, the State Department announced a “declaration of humanitarian assistance for Cuba,” without specifying how it would be implemented.
It took several days to clarify that they would channel aid only through the Cuban Catholic Church and Caritas, thereby denying any cooperation with the Cuban authorities under the poisonous pretext of “extending a hand to the people, not the regime.” This belated and conditional aid has reminded Cubans that even the most basic gesture of humanity can be thwarted by the senselessness of the blockade.
As Melissa was already retreating, a report on National Television showed several residents of Santiago de Cuba, who had been evacuated as a precaution, standing in front of the rubble of what used to be their homes. They consoled each other with the words, “We are alive!” And on an island hit by a passing hurricane and another stationary one, those two words are a tremendous victory.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English