From our Bureau of Major Calamities
Add scorching heat to the long list of crushing adversities endured by Cubans. The “heat dome” that has developed in the Caribbean over the past few days is breaking records in Cuba.
Keep in mind that most homes in Cuba don’t have air conditioning and that fans are useless during the island’s frequent blackouts, and that water is in short supply or unavailable in many places. Pools? Beaches? Sorry, those are for tourists. Movie theaters? There are very few now, even though at one time, B.C. (Before Castro) Havana had more movie theaters per capita than Paris. Stores and restaurants? Forget that too, the ones with air conditioning are for tourists too. How about some ice? You’ve got to be kidding, right?
And it’s only June. July and August are normally hotter.
Loosely translated from CubaNet
“Of course, a hurricane has to come, maybe two or three, because this is insufferable,” complains a still young woman as she throws half a bucket of water into the doorway and pours the other half over herself.
On the ground floor of the adjoining building there is a small queue to buy mincemeat. People comment that next weekend a hurricane will hit the Lesser Antilles. Once in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, it could gain strength and head, with that extra force, towards Cuba.
For the past few days the heat on the island has been tremendous. The official media talk about the increase in temperatures, but no one has yet referred to the climatic phenomenon that is causing 33 degrees to feel on the skin as if it were forty.
Tips on precautions to take during a heat wave are circulating on social media. Special care is recommended with the elderly, children and pets. You have to drink a lot of water, replenish electrolytes and avoid staying outdoors during the hours when the sun hits hardest.
Some think that this heat, in the month of June, is not normal. Although in recent years the record for high temperatures in Oriente and Havana has been broken several times, another factor influences the inhuman weather conditions that are plaguing the island these days.
The BBC published on June 15 that an extreme weather phenomenon, called “heat dome”, would be punishing the area of Central America and the Caribbean. Although many Cubans are familiar with the term “heat wave”, and we know how to recognize its symptoms and its impact without the government issuing any alert, the heat dome is much more severe; therefore, its deadly potential is also higher.
They’re savages, so they’ll deal with it somehow. They’re certainly not supposed to have AC anyway.