From 7 to 9 July, Cuba was battered by winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour, six-metre high waves and heavy rains, leading to flooding, power cuts and communication systems breakdown, as a result of Hurricane Dennis, which also hit Jamaica, Haiti and the southern US. HELEN YAFFE witnessed the national mobilisation to protect Cuban people, land and property.
Meteorology Exercise 2005
The weekend before the hurricane hit Cuba, hundreds of thousands of Cubans engaged in Meteorology Exercise 2005, a national mobilisation to prepare for the tropical storms which historically strike Cuba in late summer. The aim of the exercise, which involved workers, farmers, students and specialists from the municipal Defence Councils, work centres, social institutions, grassroots organisations, the Ministry of the Interior and units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces was to train the population in the ‘execution of tasks of protection.’ These include:
• organising evacuations of people and livestock
• measures to prevent flooding
• dealing with gas leakages and explosions
• ensuring food and medical provisions for shelters
• securing economic resources
• ensuring the flow of information in the case of power cuts and communication breakdown
• clearing up as quickly as possible after the disaster, focusing on hygiene.
Meteorology 2005 was intended to demonstrate the strengths and weakness in Cuba’s national emergency contingency preparations. It was hailed as a success.
Hurricane Dennis
By Tuesday 5 July, Cubans were preparing for the real thing, as the tropical storm heading towards Cuba escalated to a category 2 hurricane. By Thursday afternoon Hurricane Dennis was a category 4, just short of category 5 on the Saffir Simpson scale.
Television, radio and newspapers were key to the revolutionary government’s strategy of preparing and informing the population. By Thursday afternoon, there were televised images of six-metre waves lashing the coast of Santiago de Cuba. The Cubans remained calm, purchasing supplies, securing homes and streets and tuning in to watch the daily live ‘round table’ discussion, which was extended by several hours for a full analysis and report on the hurricane. President Fidel Castro participated in the programme, communicating via telephone with the Communist Party’s First Secretary in Granma province where a television tower had been felled by 100kph winds. Other provincial representatives reported in detail on their contingency measures. More than 200,000 people had been evacuated by Thursday afternoon.
By dawn on Friday, Dennis’ winds and heavy rains were battering the southeastern provinces, while in Havana we woke to blue skies. Maintaining its force, Dennis moved west, severely damaging the beautiful historical city of Trinidad; Cienfuegos in central Cuba was hit by gusts of up to 200kph, destroying homes and knocking out the province’s electrical supply. By Friday afternoon, overcast skies announced the hurricane’s advance on Havana. Shops closed and Cubans waited, playing dominoes and watching the news until the blackout hit Havana. 168,000 people were evacuated.
Some time around midnight, the eye of the hurricane crossed Cuba, leaving Cuba’s northern coast several miles east of Havana. The winds reached 124kph, but after all their preparations, the people of Havana dismissed Hurricane Dennis as a big wind, and little damage was seen in the centre. Just 184 homes were destroyed in the province. By 5am, brigades were out cleaning up the rubble, and by 7.30am the famous M7 ‘camel’ bus had resumed service.
However, power cuts continued, affecting gas and water supplies. Daily newspapers gave information about progress in restoring telephones, radio, water, gas and electricity.
The rain continued throughout Saturday. By Sunday clear skies were back but there was still no refrigeration, no ventilators and no gas; water had to be drawn in buckets from underground supplies. Even bread rations were affected. People grumbled, but were kept informed about when services would resume. At no point did medical services stop. By Sunday morning gas, water and electricity were returning sporadically and by the afternoon, people in Havana could see on their televisions the devastation suffered in eastern and central Cuba and know how comparatively lucky they were. In one town, 94% of homes had been completely or partially destroyed.
Overall, the sum of the devastation was:
• 16 people dead, 13 of them in Granma, one of the most rural and least developed provinces in Cuba
• $1.4bn of damage (£800 million)
• 120,000 homes seriously damaged, including 15,000 destroyed
• 1,531,000 people evacuated throughout the country
• 1,025 electricity posts felled and 21 municipalities left without electricity.
• 2.5 million people without a direct water supply.
President Castro announced an additional investment of $400 million in food supplies and that Venezuela was sending Cuba electric towers, fuel and other materials. Cuba has, however, declined the offer of ‘humanitarian aid’ from the US and European Union, a rejection of US and EU hypocrisy, given previous EU reductions in aid and US measures to reduce remittances to Cuba from Cubans in the US. Any non-Cuban US citizen sending money – including humanitarian aid following the hurricane – to Cuba faces imprisonment. The US offer also came with the condition that inspectors be sent to Cuba to evaluate the damage. As Pascual Serrano wrote in Rebelion, ‘we all know what happened to the last country where US inspectors have been and the type of inspectors they were.’ Meanwhile, Cuba has already airlifted emergency food and other supplies to hurricane victims in Jamaica.
Experiencing Hurricane Dennis in the heart of Havana demonstrated the unique level of national mobilisation, cooperation and solidarity with which Cubans confront whatever threatens their revolutionary way of life. Whilst recovery continued, news arrived of Hurricane Emily circling close by. Another dozen tropical storms are predicted in the area this season. Times are tough. In addition to a year-long drought and the ever-tightening US blockade, since May there have been weeks of regular power cuts due to essential maintenance work on generators in the national grid, compounded by the unforeseen need to withdraw two faulty thermoelectric plants in Matanzas and Camaguey. The result has been a major deficit of electricity, distributed equally through the island in the form of blackouts. However, despite all its problems socialist Cuba has shown once again that, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
FRFI 186 August / September 2005
