Havana, Cuba
AP
The worshippers pray beneath a torrid sun, taking shelter beneath umbrellas or some of the few trees that border the Amphitheater of Old Havana, just a strip of highway from the channel into the city’s harbour.
Hundreds of Baptists have been meeting on open-air bleachers set atop stone tiers for services on recent Sundays because their sanctuary, the 19th century Calvary Church, was severely damaged by an explosion at the neighboring Hotel Saratoga just over a month ago.
Baptists worship in an amphitheater more than a month after their church was severely damaged in the explosion at the Hotel Saratoga, in Havana, Cuba, on Sunday, 12th June. The gas leak that caused the explosion of the Saratoga on May 6, also damaged neighbouring buildings including the Calvary Baptist Church. PICTURE: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa.
The 6th May blast, apparently caused by a gas leak, killed 46 people, including hotel workers, residents of neighbouring houses and passersby – though those in the church itself were spared. Officials say two people remain hospitalised.
Rev Barbaro Abel Marrero Castellanos, president of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, looks at the damage inside the Calvary Baptist Church after an explosion that devastated the Hotel Saratoga, which sits next door, in Old Havana, Cuba, on 11th May. PICTURE: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa/File photo.
Rev David González said the government had offered use of the amphitheatre, about 10 blocks from the damaged church, for the time being.
“All signs are hopeful” that the church can be restored,” González said. “A significant part will have to be demolished, perhaps the affected columns, the homes [next door], but in general it seems like the structure can be saved…It will be a long process.”
The church was just one of the architectural casualties of the blast that occurred little more than a block from Cuba’s Capitol building: A school, a theatre and at least three apartment buildings were damaged.
The five-star hotel itself, one of the jewels of Havana’s tourism industry, was left in ruins. Officials have not yet said whether they will try to save the structure, which is now largely covered by sheets of metal.
Most of the recovery effort so far has been to remove debris and restore traffic in a key part of the city centre.
Nightmares still haunt those who survived.
“My house was wall to wall with the Hotel Saratoga,” said Onaylis Suárez, a 29-year-old teacher married to Rev González. “The floor shook. I was paralyzed for three seconds and the window of the room opened up and was blown into the street by the expansive wave….
“A lot of things went through my mind. I thought the church was falling. I thought it was a bomb. What I felt is that I had to flee.”
More than a score of families who lived in the damaged structures are staying in a city shelter pending construction of new apartments while others, like Suárez, have been staying with relatives.
