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Comandante · Verfasst am: 15.11.2005 08:26 Titel: Havana preparing for 486th birthday

Havana preparing for 486th birthday
HAVANA (EFE).- La Villa de San Cristóbal de La Ha-bana, this capital’s full name, is preparing to celebrate the 486th anniversary of its founding with a huge effort to clean up and rebuild after Hurricane Wilma spawned the worst flooding of its long history.

Once known as the “Pearl of the Caribbean,” this island’s main city with its 2.2 million inhabitants is shaking off the effects of the hurricane, which forced some 130,000 persons here to evacuate and caused serious damage to more than 2,800 houses and other buildings when it struck in late October.

Wilma’s storm surge brought the ocean some two kilometers (1.25 miles) inland and flooded large portions of the city to a depth of several meters (yards), the worst in-undation in Havana’s history.
The storm showed no mercy to the Malecón, the seaside avenue where both Cu-bans and tourists congregate and along which one can get one of the world’s best ocean views. It runs eight kilometers (five miles) from Old Havana, the city’s historic center, to the Almendares River.
Powerful waves several meters high displaced tons of cement and opened huge “waves” in the pavement of the roadway.
The recovery tasks, in which the armed forces are playing a key role, have al-lowed the Malecón to recover - bit by bit - its traditional look, but the marks of Wilma’s fury are still evident here and there, for instance in the gaps broken in the concrete seawall along the avenue.
Most of the coast-hugging road is already passable to pedestrians an Havana residents can once again stroll along the Malecón for a breath of fresh air during the long blackouts suffered almost daily by a large part of the city.

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