The UN agency noted the low number of deaths in Cuba as a result of recent storms, citing the fact that Hurricane Charley last month caused four deaths in Cuba, compared to 30 in Florida.

Hurricane Ivan, which hit the Caribbean island’s western tip September 12-13, caused no deaths in Cuba compared to 34 in Grenada, an island with less than one percent of Cuba’s population. Dozens also died in Jamaica and at least 42 deaths have been caused by the storm in the southern United States.

These figures are not the result of sheer luck.

Hurricane Ivan did spare Havana and the most populated sections of the country, which minimized destruction. But the storm did cause significant damage in the western province of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth. Towns were flooded. As many as 20,000 houses were destroyed. Roads were torn up, crops blown away, and trees and electrical lines downed. Yet, not one person was killed.

As Ivan approached, solidarity became the watchword. The Cuban government and the country’s mass organizations began to carry out longstanding plans for hurricane preparation. “No one will be discouraged, whatever the hurricane may bring,” said Cuban president Fidel Castro on national TV before the storm reached Cuba. “The first priority is to protect life, health, and resources. Then immediately begin rebuilding.” He went on, “We have the kind of training, and the culture of cooperation that has allowed us to reduce to record low levels the number of deaths, and that’s what’s most important.”

Through the civil defense groups, trade unions, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Communist Party, the Union of Young Communists, and other organizations, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Cubans volunteered to help evacuate people, protect vital equipment and farm machinery, store thousands of tons of food in secure locations, and take simple steps like trimming trees that could threaten power lines.

The government evacuated nearly 1.9 million people in preparation for Ivan. Three-quarters of them were lodged with family or in other private housing. The rest were accommodated in about 2,500 shelters. People were often evacuated along with their household possessions. “We are very happy,” said one young mother in a shelter in a September 13 interview with Tele Rebelde TV. “Behind the buses in which we were evacuated came a caravan of trucks with our televisions, refrigerators, and mattresses.”

One shelter had 238 evacuees, including five pregnant women. There were also 14 doctors and seven nurses providing medical attention.

In addition, across the country the government set up 1,725 kitchens for feeding evacuees and volunteers. This involved more than 6,000 culinary workers in Havana alone, many of whom worked 24 hours at a stretch, cooking with firewood and kerosene when there was no gas.

Schools got special attention, with volunteers—in many cases including schoolchildren—moving furniture, TVs, and computers to safe locations. When the threat passed everything had to be put back. “I carried the table, it was a little heavy, but I want classes to start again,” said nine-year-old Mario Raúl, a student at the Carlos Hernández primary school. “I like my classes.”

Television and radio reporters were all over the island. Their stories helped viewers and listeners understand both what had already been accomplished and what remained to be done. One story featured a factory that makes roof sections, with the workers explaining that they would make extraordinary efforts to produce these vital parts. The nightly TV discussion show “Mesa Redonda” (Round Table), which usually runs for an hour, was for three nights turned into an open-ended question and answer session on preparations for and response to the hurricane. Cuban president Fidel Castro and Cuba’s top meteorologist José Rubiera were the featured speakers.

In a country so highly electrified, the loss of power is a serious problem. 1,500 electrical workers from eight provinces were working in Pinar del Rio immediately after the storm passed to restore power as quickly as possible. Many of these workers had barely recovered from their enormous efforts to restore power after Hurricane Charley.

Agricultural workers went into action in an attempt to harvest whatever crops were ready before the hurricane struck. However, thousands of tons of fruit, tobacco, and other crops were lost. Tens of thousands of cattle and sheep and 1 million chickens and turkeys were moved to safe locations.

On Saturday, September 11, as Havana was watching and waiting, a uniformed man with a clipboard came to the door. He was checking up on household pets. Where people were evacuated, so were their pets. As a Cuban animal lover explained to me, “The little animals might have fleas, and in the shelters there are little children, and old people, and having the pets with them could be a health hazard, so they animals go to a special shelter, with a veterinarian.” The sea-turtle reserve on the Isle of Youth reported saving 178 of the animals.

As of September 16, some areas of Pinar del Rio province remained under water. There has been no estimate of the total damage yet.
 

There were no deaths in Cuba, as working people and their government organized massively to defend the population from the hurricane’s onslaught (see article above).

Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate from the stretch of coast between New Orleans and western Florida before the storm hit. The mayor of New Orleans said that about 100,000 residents of that city, who depend on public transportation, could not evacuate. City authorities did nothing to organize transportation for them. He advised them to “vertically evacuate” to the higher floors of tall buildings to avoid flood waters. Weather forecasters noted that the higher floors of buildings are hit with faster winds in a hurricane and are a dangerous place to seek shelter. In the end, the brunt of the storm passed east of New Orleans.

The storm also devastated farms on its path northeastward across the country. In the South, cotton, peanut, and pecan growers were hit especially hard, particularly in Georgia. Many small farmers will need federal assistance to stay in business.

“All the fruit has been blown off and half of our trees have been uprooted,” said farmer Tim Tucker of Uriah, Alabama, according to the Associated Press. “If we replant it will be 10 years before they produce pecans.” His cotton crop was blown flat and his barn collapsed, trapping about 30 head of cattle in the rubble.

While insurance companies are complaining of the billions of dollars in claims that have been filed, tens of thousands of workers, farmers and small business people—many who had inadequate or no insurance—are bearing the worst of the economic devastation caused by the storm.

Some 90 percent of the houses in Grenada were reportedly damaged. The government of the Cayman Islands, a British colony that lies between Cuba and Honduras, is appealing to cruise ship companies to send them luxury liners to house people left homeless by the hurricane. Ninety five percent of building roofs were destroyed there.
 
 
Related articles:
Over 700 die in Haiti as deforestation results in devastating floods from storm  
 
 
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