Christian churches in Guantánamo were devastated as Hurricane Oscar swept through the eastern region of Cuba between Sunday and Monday. Heart-wrenching images reveal extensive damage to several chapels in the municipalities of Imías, Maisí, and Baracoa, which, along with San Antonio del Sur, were the areas most severely impacted by the cyclone.
Photos shared on Facebook depict large sections of a church roof that collapsed, destroying furniture and electrical equipment inside. Evangelist preacher Yurien Martínez Castellanos posted these images with a message: “Churches affected after Hurricane Oscar’s passage in Eastern Cuba. Imías, Maisí, and Baracoa. Pastors have sent us photos of the aftermath in their churches. We pray together for the swift recovery of the affected churches. Amen.”
Severe Flooding Impacts Churches and Homes
The Christian Ministry Una Mano que Ayuda documented the severe flooding in a temple and pastoral house in Imías, located in southern Guantánamo. The publication highlighted the seriousness of the flooding, noting that “the temple is one of the highest points compared to other homes in the area, yet it is flooded to the limit of the platform.”
Striking photographs show the floodwaters rising to cover the legs and supports of furniture in all rooms of the pastoral house and the benches of the worship hall, where a resident stood with water reaching his knees. “Cuba has been without power for 72 hours, lacking potable water in many homes, and now this hurricane adds to the crisis,” the post noted early Monday, about 12 hours after Oscar made landfall near Baracoa.
Widespread Destruction and Loss of Life
The report also mentioned a Christian church in Baracoa that lost its roof as Oscar passed through, as reported by Peter Sergi Ortega Ruiz, who reminded readers of the ongoing mass power outages affecting Cubans. Hurricane Oscar, which hit Cuban soil on October 20 as a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, left a trail of destruction across eastern Cuba, with Guantánamo being the hardest-hit province.
Tragically, the storm claimed six lives, including a five-year-old girl, as part of its preliminary toll. The situation remains dire, particularly in the municipalities of San Antonio del Sur and Imías, which experienced unprecedented flooding. The deceased, all residents of San Antonio del Sur, were identified as Francisco Colombia Matos (92), Esmeraldo Noa Fiffe (82), Antolino Areas Domínguez (84), Alexander Saben Matos (42), Irianni Labañino Domínguez (31), and the young girl Liz Anyi Elías Labañino (5).
In a preliminary report released this Monday, the Cuban government announced that over a thousand homes suffered damage across various municipalities in Guantánamo, the primary area affected by Oscar, which weakened to a tropical storm as it progressed eastward. The meteorological event also devastated coffee, banana, and tomato plantations in several localities and caused significant damage to 50% of the industrial facilities of the San Antonio del Sur salt company.