From our Bureau of Socialist Building Maintenance with some assistance from our Labyrinth of Ruins Bureau
The good news is that yesterday’s building collapse didn’t kill anyone. The bad news is that nearly every other building in the older sections of Havana will suffer the same fate sooner or later.
Socialism in action means inaction. These buildings haven’t received proper maintenance for 63 years.
See slideshow above and video below
Loosely translated from Diario de Cuba:
Another collapse in a multi-family building occurred on Thursday in Old Havana, this time on Refugio street between Prado and Morro, two blocks from the Spanish embassy in Cuba. Around 1:00 PM the facade and balconies of the apartment building in which eight families lived collapsed. After the fall, the interior of the houses of the three-storey building was exposed.
Neighbors of the place reported the existence of at least three injured, none seriously, and that no deaths were reported.
Beatriz López, a resident of Refugio and Prado, told DIARIO DE CUBA: “That building was in good condition. No apartment was ever declared in danger of collapsing there. We only noticed something strange since yesterday and that is that dust began to fall, even that you could see on the sidewalk, but everything else was normal.
“It is a miracle that no one was crushed to death because this sidewalk is very busy with people going to the queue for the Spanish Embassy. One of the neighbors had just put the rice to cook, she went to the balcony and when she returned the flat opened up to the empty behind her. What a scare!” exclaimed López.