To clarify..... These are independent brigades, cooperatives, not government, which I was referring to.

Of course, if you are poor, you are not in a position to hire them but not everybody is poor.

I completely forgot Cuba gets hurricanes... Surprising since i have been in Cuba for 2 of them.

Adding hurricane proof to my criteria for buying a house in Cuba. Primarily, not too near a coast. Winds we can deal with, flooding, no.

Granma.cu had posted quite a few pictures of Havana and west... In the last few hours.

Playa Baracoa, a place of interest in our house hunt.... Not sure now if it is prudent to buy there, based on the pictures.

Ya, and they just passed a law where construction brigades cannot work outside their province nor hire licensed tradesmen. Duhhh.

The government hasn't fulfilled their promise of building xx,xxx houses every year since the last major hurricane. Now this?

The positive that may come of this disaster is they start loosening up....

Yes, I think they are going to make an exception now. The different provinces in Cuba always send  brigades to the more damaged places. I see that Santiago is sending brigades to Camaguey.

Putin has assured Cuba that he will help with the rebuilding.

Like mentioned by others I just wonder what this is going to do to Cubas fragile economy.

They got a good whopping.  It slowed down and the eye entered close by. No trees left at home.  Either snapped trunks or uprooted entirely.  Plantains are expected to fall.  Al the mango, guava, avocado is gone.  That's about 5km inland so I suppose Varadero itself is in shambles.