Vol. 72/No. 37      September 22, 2008

Not a single person died from Hurricane Gustav. The revolutionary government there led working people to mobilize and evacuate those living in the most threatened areas. More than 2.6 million people were also organized to evacuate their homes before Hurricane Ike hit. Four people in Cuba died from that storm.

In contrast, in nearby Haiti, which was also hit by the storms, more than 300 people lost their lives. Toilers there were forced to fend for themselves.

According to Juventud Rebelde, even as heavy rains still fell, the Cuban government has begun working with leaders in the affected regions on taking steps to immediately begin reconstruction efforts.

Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour and gusts reaching a record of 212 miles per hour. Hardest hit were the Isle of Youth and provinces on the western part of the island, including Pinar del Río.

In his “Reflections” column in Granma September 3, former Cuban president Fidel Castro estimated that about $3 billion to $4 billion will be needed for recovery costs. “How many safe, hurricane-proof homes does Cuba need? No less than 1.5 million houses for a total of 3.5 million families,” he wrote.

At the same time, the Cuban leader added, “We’re lucky to have a Revolution! No citizen will be abandoned to his fate.”

Extensive preparations were taken to safeguard the population prior to arrival of the hurricanes. Evacuation centers, for example, had doctors, nurses, and medical supplies in place beforehand. Teams of workers cleaned street drains, stored food supplies, and moved animals to higher ground.

Col. Miguel Angel Puig, chief of the Operations Department of the Civil Defense General Staff, said that only 19 people sustained injuries from Hurricane Gustav, none of them life-threatening.

Castro tells the story of the effort to rescue five crew members of a lobster boat from Batabanó in Havana Province. Communication was lost with the boat and once weather permitted, the government started a search. “It eventually involved 36 boats, three helicopters and two planes for almost two days,” he writes. The men were found alive and rescued.

More than 100,000 homes in Cuba were destroyed by Gustav—70,000 in Pinar del Río, where some 500 schools were also damaged, reports the Red Cross.

Vicente La O, director of the Electric Union, reported that 136 high tension towers were brought down by strong winds.

On the Isle of Youth, of the 25,000 houses on the island, some 20,000 were damaged by the storm and half of these have no roofs or are totally destroyed.

Washington has offered $100,000 for what it describes as humanitarian aid to Cuba. However, it insists that the money will only be made available to private relief organizations, not to the Cuban government. The offer also includes a request to send United States Agency for International Development agents into the country to “assess” the damage.

If the U.S. government really wanted to help, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, it would “allow the sale to Cuba of those materials considered indispensable and to suspend the restrictions that prevent U.S. companies from offering private commercial credits to our country for the purchase of food in the United States.”  
 
 
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