On Saturday, relatives of the missing in Cuba’s capital looked anxiously for victims of an explosion at one of the city’s most opulent hotels, which killed at least 26 people. They searched the morgue and hospitals, and if they couldn’t find anyone, they went back to the partially collapsed Hotel Saratoga, where rescuers used dogs to look for survivors.
The likely cause of Friday’s blast at the 96-room hotel was a natural gas leak. Because it was doing renovations ahead of a planned Tuesday reopening after being closed, the 19th-century edifice in the Old Havana area had no visitors at the time.
According to the official Cubadebate news site, Havana city officials boosted the death toll to 26 on Saturday. Four children and a pregnant mother were among the victims.
Using ladders to descend through the wreckage and twisted metal into the hotel’s basement, search and rescue crews worked through the night and into Saturday, as heavy machinery delicately shifted piles of the building’s façade to provide access. Above, wires dangling from walls, and workstations sat seemingly undisturbed inches from the abyss where the building’s front cleft away.
Because the authorities had told them not to answer questions, the rescuers declined to do so.
Early Saturday, at least one survivor was discovered in the shattered rubble, as rescuers crawled over big chunks of concrete hunting for more. Relatives of the missing lingered at the scene, while others gathered at hospitals treating the injured.
Yatmara Cobas stood outside the border, desperate for news of her daughter, Shaidis Cobas, a 27-year-old cleaner.
“My daughter is in the Saratoga; she’s been there since 8 a.m. (Friday), and I have no information about her at this point,” Cobas added. “She’s not in the morgue or the hospital,” says the narrator. The mother claimed she had searched the authorities for answers but had come up empty-handed.
She stated, “I’m tired of the falsehoods.”
Comandante Ramiro Valdés, who fought with Fidel Castro, was briefed on the search activities at the location Saturday morning by Lt. Col. Enrique Pea.
People had been spotted on the first level and in the basement, according to Pea, and four teams of search canines and handlers were working. He had no idea if the victims were still alive.
Cristina Avellar told reporters near the hotel, “I don’t want to relocate from here.”
Odalys Barrera, a 57-year-old cashier who had worked at the hotel for five years, was still missing. Barrera’s girls have her as their godmother, and she considers her a sister.
A day after the explosion, neighbors were still shocked.
Guillermo Madan, a 73-year-old retiree who lives just meters from the building but was not hurt, stated, “I thought it was a bomb.” When the blast occurred, the three-decade resident of the area was cooking and watching television. “The location of my room changed. My neighbor’s window, plates, and everything broke.”
At the time, Katerine Marrero, 31, was out shopping. “I was leaving the store when I heard the explosion,” she explained. “Everyone began to flee.”
Despite the fact that no tourists were hurt, the explosion has dealt another blow to the country’s vital tourism business.
Cuba was already battling with tougher restrictions imposed by former US President Donald Trump and maintained by the Biden administration before the coronavirus pandemic kept tourists away. Tourist trips to the islands from the United States were prohibited, as were remittances from Cubans in the United States to their family in Cuba.
Early this year, tourism began to recover, but the situation in Ukraine deflated a surge of Russian travelers, who accounted for over a third of all visitors to Cuba last year.
At least 74 persons were hurt, according to Dr. Julio Guerra Izquierdo, the Ministry of Health’s chief of hospital services. According to a tweet from President Miguel Daz-office, Canel’s 14 children were among them.
A nearby school with 300 students was evacuated. Five of the pupils were injured, according to Havana Governor Reinaldo Garca Zapata.
The iconic hotel featured a spectacular view of Cuba’s downtown area, especially the domed Capitol building, which was about 110 yards (100 meters) distant. The explosion caused broken glass and structural damage to the Capitol.
The hotel was renovated in 2005 as part of the Cuban government’s revitalization of Old Havana and is owned by Grupo de Turismo Gaviota SA, the Cuban military’s tourism commercial arm. The company said it was looking into the cause of the explosion and did not respond to an email from the reporters seeking more information about the hotel and the remodeling.
Visiting VIPs and political personalities, including high-ranking US government delegations, have stayed at the Hotel Saratoga in the past. In 2013, Beyoncé and Jay-Z stayed there.
Structures close to the hotel, including two heavily damaged apartment complexes, are being inspected, according to Garca Zapata. Families in the damaged buildings have been relocated, according to Daz-Canel.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was expected to arrive in Havana late Saturday for a visit, and Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard confirmed that the visit would go on.
