Even the coral reefs shook

From an article by Dalia Acosta on Inter Press Service:

GIBARA, Cuba, Dec 11 (IPS) - The years will pass and their children’s children will ask how much truth there was in their grandparents’ stories.

The family who watched the water reach their second-floor apartment, the woman who dreamt the day before that she was swimming in her own house, or the story that along the coast, even the coral reefs shook will all seem like legends.

Or maybe not. Perhaps the deafening roar of the winds of Hurricane Ike or the six-metre high storm surge it caused in September will become such common occurrences that governments, local communities and families will have to bear them in mind whenever they decide where or how to build homes.

"When the strength of the sea is capable of destroying in just a few hours what it has taken nature centuries to build up, you have to be scared of it," says architect Alberto Moya, who worked for years to preserve the cultural heritage of this small city located 775 km east of Havana. "And that is what happened all along the coast in Gibara," he tells IPS.

The seaside neighbourhood of "Caletones looks like a different planet. The sea swept everything away. Not even the beach is left. They say the reef itself was shaking," says Moya.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment reported that in this area, the winds pushed the sea up to 1,000 metres inland, vegetation was damaged along a 25-km stretch of coastal land, large chunks of coral were torn up and washed onto shore, and dunes were destroyed.

On the nearly pristine small beach of Caletones, used as a holiday and recreational spot by residents from the small port town of Gibara, which is 17 km away, only a few solidly-built cabins constructed by government companies were left standing. Seven of the 11 coastal neighbourhoods in the area were simply wiped out as the hurricane hovered for hours over the northern coast of the province of Holguín.