Posted on Fri, Sep. 12, 2008
By LIZA GROSS
lgross@MiamiHerald.com
The Cuban government was scrambling Friday to salvage battered crops and
many towns across the island remain inaccessible due to flooding brought
on by swollen rivers and overflowing reservoirs in the wake of
hurricanes Ike and Gustav.
Authorities also continued their frantic efforts to assess total damage
and direct aid to the neediest areas after admitting that the country's
reserves will not be enough to surmount the devastation. The death toll
is at least 7.
On Sunday, there will be massive mobilizations to pick the coffee crop
''before it rots,'' Cuban TV said.
In Holguin Province in eastern Cuba, 20,000 hectares of crops, mostly
plantains, were first battered by the hurricane winds and then washed
over by continuing torrential rains. Workers rushed to salvage as much
as possible, Cuban TV reported Friday.
Hurricane Ike also flattened 156,000 hectares of sugar cane, out of a
total of 700,000 planted across the island.
All grove crops in the Isle of Youth, off Cuba's southwest coast, were
decimated when Gustav rumbled through August 30 as a Category 4 hurricane.
A German nongovernment organization, Agro Acción Alemana, which has
worked in Cuba for 15 years, estimated that at least 75 percent of the
island's agriculture suffered some damage, according to press reports.
Agro Acción Alemana also warned that the food situation is ''truly
difficult'' and that the damages ``leave the country vulnerable to
nationwide food uncertainty in the next six months.''
Meanwhile, flooding also has become an overriding concern.
In Pinar del Río province in western Cuba, the river Cuyahuateje has
overflowed its banks and left entire communities, such as the town of
Guane, underwater and inaccessible by road. It also washed out crops and
tobacco warehouses.
Flooding also persists in the province of Yara, with the rivers Yara and
Río Cauto overflowing its banks due to the rains.
''It's a unique situation,'' an unidentified resident of the town Grito
de Yara said on Cuban TV. The town of Río Cauto still lacked electrical
power Friday.
In the central province of Cienfuegos, numerous towns remain
inaccessible because of the swollen rivers, including Cimarrones, Cien
Rosas, Charco Azul, El Naranjo and Centro Cubano Uno, according to state
run media.
Additional flooding is feared in the province of Villa Clara at the dam
Los Alacranes, as well as in Holguín province, where reservoirs have
reached near 96 percent capacity.
''It is impossible to solve the magnitude of the catastrophe with the
resources available,'' Carlos Lezcano, director of the National
Institute of State Reserves (INRE) said Friday on Cuban television. ``We
will have to prioritize.''
Cuban television reported that President Raúl Castro told Namibian
President Hifikepunye Pohanka in a telephone conversation that ``never
in the history of Cuba had we had a case like this one.''
Aid delivery is focusing on the neediest areas as rain continues to fall
on the island and hampers delivery efforts.
At Los Palacios, the main town in the municipality of the same name in
western Cuba, with a population of some 14,000, only 23 homes were not
damaged. Supplies have already been delivered there, according to Cuban
television. In Holguín province, more than 100,000 buildings are
affected and only 30 percent of the electric service has been restored,
although telephones are functional.
Cuba raised it its death toll from Hurricane Ike to seven people.
According to the Civil Defense, the deaths were not caused by the
hurricanes strictly speaking, but by ''the lack of observance of the
security measures'' in almost all cases.
They were identified by Cuban television as follows:
• Pascual Villafañe, 35, Camagüey
• Carmelina Dieguez, 74, Holguín
• Antonio Mendoza, 55, Santiago de Cuba
• Pedro Corzo, 76, Villa Clara
• Angel Sanchez, 35, Villa Clara
• Pedro Pablo Gutierrez, 55, Havanna
• Carlos Velazquez, 53, Puerto Padre
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