Houses crumble in San Cristobal

[NewsWhore]

In situations reminiscent of events in Tamboril and the Cumbre of Juan Veras earlier this year, some houses in San Cristobal are being swallowed up by the earth. Despite the lighter rains, landslides and collapses in the area have continued. One two-story house that went over a cliff overlooking the River Nigua belonged to Porfirio Cuello, who lost the fruits of 20 years' labor in the United States in an instant. Cuello said his house was worth RD$2 million, and that he and his wife are now being sheltered at a neighbor's house. They left their house two weeks ago after noticing that cracks in the walls were getting bigger. A two-story house belonging to Eulalia de los Santos is also on the verge of collapse, and so she has sought shelter at a neighbor's house while waiting for 40 years of hard work to disintegrate. She said that the landslides had begun during the last Joaquin Balaguer government (1996), caused by a creek that had been covered by the Trujillo government in 1940, and whose drainage system had begun to deteriorate over the years. She said that the first part of the culverts collapsed in 1996, but now the collapses have reached Luis Alberti Street and Alleyway #2, where 50 houses are in danger.

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