Photos: Sergio Betancort
"Yesterday we didn't sleep, we didn't eat… My wife nervous, crying. I had never seen the house like this." With broken phrases like these, Isidro describes the situation that was experienced this Thursday in a house in Playa Honda, on Remo Street, which once again became one of the "black spots" with the rains. But this time, with more intensity than ever.
"I have owned this house for 15 years and there have been rains, but neither my neighbors nor I have ever experienced this type of situation," he says. And this Thursday, his house was not only filled with water accompanied by fecal remains and cockroaches. "The water entered with such virulence that the entire pavement has burst," explains Isidro, who saw how the tiles on the floor were lifted and how all the furniture in his house was destroyed.
"It has become unusable. It is soaked from top to bottom. Three times it rained, three times the water rose," he says, describing a scenario of flooded cabinets; floor and furniture "of solid wood" in the dining room "swollen"; and unusable sofas. "My house was a river of water, an extension of the street," recalls this neighbor, clarifying that along with the water came "fecal remains and cockroaches galore."
As in many other parts of the island, the problem began with the first downpour of water in the morning. "The first one made its breakthrough, but the second one was already crazy," he explains, talking about the second intense rain that was recorded around 7:00 p.m. And the worst thing is that the story didn't end there, because the rain continued in the early morning.
"We haven't slept all night. We stood guard because my wife wouldn't calm down," says Isidro, who is now "trying to convince" his wife not to spend tonight in the house, which has become uninhabitable and "smells like what a house shouldn't smell like". The San Bartolomé City Council itself has offered to accommodate them in a hotel, although for the moment, "the one in charge at home" does not want to leave and the couple is still debating whether or not to move to a hotel.
"There are very good and wonderful people"
Despite the hard times they have had to live through, Isidro also highlights good things. For example, that a plumber who was in the area helped him take buckets of water out of his house. "I asked him to give me a hand and he didn't hesitate," he recalls with gratitude. "There are wonderful people here. That's the beauty of the case. There are very good and wonderful people."
In addition, he also has good words for the San Bartolomé City Council. "The mayoress knows firsthand that she has been concerned, the councilor of Urban Planning, her operators, José Viñoly, who I have called every time I have had problems, even in the early morning, and he has never stopped answering the phone..."
This Friday, Canal Gestión has sent a tank to the house to proceed with cleaning, and will also try to determine why such a serious incident has occurred in this house. And it is that according to this neighbor, in addition to the water that entered from the street, there could also have been a break in some "pipe or manhole" under the house, since water was coming out of a built-in closet.
