Cuba's incredibly effective civil defence disaster strategy resulted in over 3 million people being evacuated to safety, 500,000 of these to evacuation centres, the remainder receiving shelter from family and friends in safe areas and buildings.  No human lives were lost from Gustav, however Cuba mourns the death of 7 people (all are claimed to have ignored evacuation directions) during Ike's onslaught.

The preliminary damage assessments cite nearly half a million homes seriously damaged and 63,000 completely destroyed, leaving more than 200,000 people homeless and seriously compounding Cubas existing housing crisis. The reconstruction and repair process will take years of intensive work and require a huge input of financial resources for materials.

Infrastructure suffered with wide spread disruption of telephone and communication systems in many provinces, 2 major national radio system towers destroyed, thousands of schools and education facilities and a long list of other vital community service buildings, health facilities, child care centres, cultural institutions, sporting facilities, bridges and thousands of kilometres of roads damaged.  In Pinar del Rio province alone, 140 high-voltage electricity towers were destroyed and 4500 power poles downed. In this province essential services such as hospitals and bakeries are operating from over 500 micro-grid generators until mains power supplies are restored.

The most severe impact has been on the agriculture sector, not only farms but urban food production systems: hundreds of greenhouses and growing facilities destroyed, nearly 700,000 hectares of sugar cane flattened, flooded or lost, half a million chickens lost, plus other livestock. In the eastern provinces alone over 32,000 hectares of plantain were decimated and tens of thousands of hectares of other crops destroyed including rice, beans and organic vegetable gardens. In addition to crops, the nation has sustained damage to 49,000 tons of food supplies in warehouses and stores.

This list is by no means comprehensive and in many areas the full extent of damage is still being assessed, however Cuba has never before had to face such a massive and wide-spread devastation to its economic, social and housing infrastructures on a national scale, in all provinces.

The nation has mobilised in the face of adversity with courage and determination to address the overwhelming task to restore infrastructure and food production.  However, Cuba needs support like never before to meet the challenges of the immediate aftermath and for the ongoing reconstruction which will takes years to complete.

Progress is not being helped by the ongoing embargo/blockade of the USA, which refuses to permit American companies to supply or sell essential building materials or food to Cuba in this time of crisis. Over the past year the US government has concertedly tightened its embargo/blockade, including penalising third parties involved in trade with Cuba and bringing down over 3,000 web sites internationally with links to Cuba. Many of the post hurricane aid responses to Cuba are coming from developing nations in Central and South America, Vietnam, Africa and one of the first was East Timor gifting $500,000 in aid to Cuba. If the affluent nations had even a fraction of that degree of generosity of spirit, the world would be a very different place.

Robyn Francis, September 22, 2008

ACN PHOTO GALLERY Gustav in Cuba Gallery
ACN PHOTO GALLERY Ike in Cuba Gallery