Storm damage in Cuba tops $5 billion

Storm damage in Cuba tops $5 billion
Posted on Tue, Sep. 16, 2008
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

Losses from two back-to-back hurricanes in Cuba that wiped out
housing, crops, electrical lines, schools and hospitals from coast to
coast will cost about $5 billion, the Cuban government announced
Tuesday.

An approximately 3,000-word statement published in Tuesday's Cuban
newspaper Granma marks the first time the Cuban government has
quantified the nationwide damage of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The figures published paint a daunting figure for a nation that was
already facing a housing crisis, low agricultural production and
shortages of key materials.

• The government said more than 444,000 homes were damaged, 63,249
destroyed. The number is slightly lower than the figure released by
the government over the weekend.

That figure includes 120,105 homes damaged in the western province of
Pinar del Río when Category 4 storm Gustav hit the region hard on Aug.
30.

• Pinar del Río lost 137 electrical towers, 4,500 electrical posts and
530 transformers.

• 100 percent of the Isle of Youth's electrical lines are down.

• 80 percent of the the Isle of Youth's poultry was affected.

• 4,355 tons of food in warehouses and stores were loss.

• Western Cuba saw damage to 314 medical facilities, including 26
hospitals, 18 clinics and 191 doctors' offices.

• 1,160 schools were damaged, including 599 in Pinar del Río alone.

Ike's Sept. 9 attack on eastern Cuba was nearly as brutal. Seven
deaths were blamed on that hurricane, which also caused severe damage.

• Almost 80,000 acres of bananas were lost and 25,000 acres of other
products.

• More than half a million chickens died, among them 100,000 were
quickly sold to the public.

• 40,000 tons of sugar has to be reprocessed because it got soaked,
and 1.2 million acres of cane are flooded.

• More than 2,500 schools are totally or partially damaged, mostly
with damage to roofs and windows.

''You don't need statistics to tell you how bad it is,'' said Cuba
expert Philip Peters, vice president of the Lexington Institute think
tank in Virginia. ``I don't think we have a clear picture yet of how
much aid Venezuela will provide, and how soon Cuba can find its way
out of this.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/688479.html