Some Dani have built huts near their new government-supplied concrete-block houses, which are now use to harbor their pigs.

From his two-story concrete-block house, he looked out on hills dotted with smokestacks.

Hundreds of mobile homes were damaged or destroyed, and roofs were torn off some concrete-block houses, county officials said.

This is a street lined on both sides with nondescript concrete-block houses with flat pebbled roofs.

It was not so bad, some people said, before a gang began using the projects and concrete-block houses as a base to sell crack.

The quake, she said, had cracked their concrete-block house from foundation to roof.

But even in the case of concrete-block houses, she said, some buyers want post-hurricane re-inspections of homes before they will go through with the purchase.

She and her six children figured they would ride out the storm in their two-room concrete-block house.

Wealthier Maka and those living in larger villages and towns often live in modern concrete-block houses, as well.

Earlier, while the concrete-block house was under construction, numerous baffled passers-by wanted to know what it was.