[Marxism] A very detailed status report from Cuba

[Pat Costello]

Via Jane Franklin--
 
From: "Susana Hurlich"
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008
 
Hola all:
 
Cuba has been, and continues to be, devastated by Hurricane Ike.
 
The only thing, and without question the most important thing, that 
hasn't been devastated is the will and determination of the Cuban 
people to surpass this disaster and go forward.
 
There's lots of information circulating in the international press 
about the extent of damages. But there are perhaps a few things that 
haven't, and it's these I want to briefly mention to give you an idea 
of the extent of damages.
 
There's not one province that has gotten off easy. More destruction, 
less de struction - but all fourteen provinces and the special municipality 
of Isla de la Juventud have suffered from Hurricane Ike. And some have 
suffered a double impact, especially Pinar del Rio, which is still - as 
I write this - under Alarma Ciclonica (Hurricane Alarm) due to the intense 
rains and tropical storm winds that are still hitting the province. All of 
the province's 14 municipalities are suffering, but the two municipalities 
of Los Palacios (south) and Las Palmas (north) have taken the brunt of 
both Gustav and Ike.
 
The eye of Ike has left Cuba, but the body is still kicking strong. 
Imagine: as of about 4pm, it's slowly growing in size and intensity. 
Sustained winds of 150 kph. Still category 1 but category 2 starts 
at 154 kph sustained winds. Its bands of tropical storm winds and 
rains extend 335 km (radius) covering all of Pinar del Rio with rains 
reaching to the western part of Camaguey province in central Cuba. 
And we're being told to brace for another 12-24 hours of rains. 
In Habana, we're still getting occasional gusts up to over 80 kph. 
All western coastal areas have been evacuated due to inundations. 
Last night, for instance, ocean waters penetrated two km inland 
in the Batabano area, on the central southern coast of 
Provincia Habana.
 
Lots of "firsts", but for which no one will get a ribbon:
 
As of 4:30 yesterday afternoon, over 2.5 million people - or almost 
21 percent of the country' s population of some 12 million - have 
been evacuated. And the number is slowly growing, as rivers that 
have never flooded before leave their banks, fattened by torrential 
rains, and dams that are fill and spilling over contribute even more 
to the flooding. 2.5 million! In the 17 years I've been in Cuba, 
ncluding through many hurricanes, I don't remember that many people 
ever being evacuated before. That's an immense undertaking involving 
organization, coordination and cooperation. Significantly, over two 
million of these people were able to get shelter in the homes of 
family and friends, yet another indication of the incredible 
solidarity that is an everyday functioning part of Cuban society.
 
The damage to food crops as well as export crops is extensive. 
In Villa Clara, some 70% of plantains - all kinds - have been knocked 
down, with maize, papaya and yuca also seriously affected. In Holguin, 
plantain, yuca, vegetables and beans have been affected. In Santiago 
de Cuba, damages to plantain, yuca, maize, plus sugar cane has been 
burned by the winds. Lots of coffee beans have fallen off trees and, 
weather permitting, they'll try to save what they can. In Ciego de 
Avila, a strong producer of plantains for the entire country, the 
greatest damage has occurred in the agricultural sector, in particular - 
but not only - to the plantain crops. In Cienfuegos, plantain and sweet 
potato are affected, as well as vegetables and citrus such as grapefruit 
and oran ge. The one crop that hasn't been affected is malanga - a tuber 
kind of like potato. And they're trying to recuperate coffee beans that 
have fallen on the ground in the Escambray Mountains. The same in Baracoa 
and Maisi, both in Guantanamo, which are key (actually, the main) 
coffee-producing areas in Cuba.
 
Housing has been seriously affected everywhere. For example, 
preliminary reports from Holguin indicate that over 150,000 houses 
have been affected, of which 37,000 have been totally destroyed. The 
province of Las Tunas says that nothing like Ike has ever hit the province 
during the last fifty years. In some municipalities, 80% of the housing stock 
has been affected. I can't even begin to estimate how many hundreds of 
thousands of houses have been either damaged or destroyed on a national 
scale! The final numbers are bound to be high.
 
And the rains! That's the most serious part of Ike right now, even more 
than the winds. In the Escambray, over 500 mm has fallen in some areas. 
Some communities are still incomunicado due to roads blocked with trees. 
But before Ike arrived, experienced personnel, including health specialists, 
had been sent to these mountain communities, along with additional food 
stocks, in anticipation of such problems, as Hurricane Fay, which affected 
Cienfuegos just before Gustav, had already affected electricity networks 
in the Escambray. The beautiful area of Las Terrazas, in Pinar del Rio - 
which many of you have no doubt visited, got over 400 mm of rain in the 
last 24 hours, as have many other areas in the province - and elsewhere 
in the coutnry. Pinar is completely without electricity. Vinales and 
many other areas are completely incomunicado. To the imapct of Gustav 
is being added the impact of Ike. Some people in Pinar del Rio were 
even asking if Ike is returning, as they're without communication or 
up-to-date access to information and the rains seem worse than before!
 
Everywhere in the country, dams are full and overflowing, causing 
inundations - still - in low zones, which are fully evacuated. In 
Las Tunas, before Ike passed, the province was experiencing a drought, 
with dams only 50% full. Now, all dams are spilling over. A first: the 
Bulgara Dam in Camaguey, built 22 years old, has NEVER been full, 
but now, after Ike, it's full and spilling for the first time since 
it was constructed. And this story is repeated everywhere.
 
Also, for the first time since it was built, the carretera central, 
Cuba's main central highway, has flooded. For those of you who know 
Cuba, the flooding covers a 3.5 km length at Aguada de Pasajeros, 
where the central highway - that is the main road link between west 
and east, crosses with the main highway from Cienfuegos in the south 
to Matanzas in northwest, is so full of water that all traffic has 
been stopped, and it's anticipated that it'll be closed for at least 
three or so days. This has never happened before and the images are 
impressive! Flooding has been caused by overflowing rivers in the 
area, that have never flooded like this before now.
 
One bit of very good news, though, to come out of Cienguegos is 
that the new "more hurricane proof" houses that were built to 
replace coastal settlements that had been completely demolished 
by Hurricane Dennis (2005) were able to withstand Ike. This is 
very good news indeed!
 
Jose Rubiera, the head of Cuba's weather forecast department, 
was asked if Cuba has ever had a hurricane that has touched 
every part of the country as has Ike. He replied that Hurricane Dennis 
(2005) entered Granma and then blasted up the centre of Cuba, 
but that the eastern part of Cuba has never had a hurricane as 
strong as Ike. Flora (1963) also affected a great part of Cuba, 
especially the east, but it was more rain than wind - unlike Ike 
which has been both plus heavy coastal inundations.
 
Assistance is coming from everywhere, both inside and outside the 
country. Examples: Santiago de Cuba has sent brigades to help Baracoa 
and Holguin. Camaguey, which has brigades in Pinar del Rio who went 
there after Gustav, has told those brigades to stay put and continue 
to help reconstruction efforts in that sister province. Camaguey, 
which has gone at least 25 years without being hit by a hurricane 
of this magnitude and which says they don't have the same experience 
confronting t hem as does Pinar, has reached out a very substantial 
hand of solidarity to los pinarenos.
 
And from overseas. You already know about the assistance from 
Russia: food, huge tents, construction materials. And $500,000 
from poor little Timor Leste. Mexico is offering aid in housing 
and electricity. Uruguay is making a call to the international 
community to help Cuba with foods, medicines and construction 
materials. Brazil is putting together an interministerial Assistance 
Group to help both Cuba and Haiti. After Gustav, solidarity and 
offers of help were already coming from China, Venezuela, 
Bolivia, Argentina, Spain, Brazil Mexico, Guatemala, the Cayman 
Islands, Peru, Santa Lucia, etc.
 
Cuba, that has the will and determination, will indeed need a 
great deal of material assistance for their reconstruction efforts. 
As Cubans themselves, as well as the authorities, no corner within 
the country is too isolated, no loss too great, to not get the 
necessary response. Tonight, on Mesa Redonda (Round Table) on TV, 
we'll be getting more detailed information about the extent of 
damages in the different provinces. They're still preliminary, 
since there are still so many areas incomunicado. But information 
is already coming in.
 
I started this email at 1:30pm. It's now 4pm. At 1:30pm, my area 
finally got electricity back. But many parts of the city are still 
without electricity. Calle 23, that main street in Vedado, has lots 
of tree limbs down a nd lots and lots of electrical wires. We're 
still having high gusts of wind. It's too dangerous for linemen to 
go up the posts, so full repairs will still take a while. Then, at 
2:30pm - only one hour to try to get my fridge cold again so that 
food won't spoil (everyone has this same concerrn) - a torrential 
storm began. Lightning and very loud thunder. I had to shut down 
the computer as my dining room window was leaking terribly because 
of the angle of the rain and the force with which it was falling. 
My two kitties, Mariposa and Luisito, were terrified! The electricity 
has gone out again and I'm finishing this up and sending it out on 
battery. So once again, I don't know when I'll be sending the next 
one. It's important that you know, though, that whereas Ike's eye 
has left, we're still very much under the winds and rains of 
this hurricane. It's immense!
 
Oh!!! The energy has just come back on - at least in this area! 
Not sure for how long nor how stable, but I'm powering up my 
computer again! Until the next heavy downpour, that is...
 
For those of you who are circulating these updates to various lists, 
it would be helpful for me to know if you'd still like me to continue 
sending them out - which I'm very willing to do - and, if so, what 
kinds of things you'd find of most interest and use for me to 
try to cover.
 
One thing that Hurricane Ike has been unfortunately shadow ing - 
and it's important that we make sure it too gets some visibility, 
are the Paralympic Games in Beijing. Cuba is doing great! To date, 
four golds, two silvers and four bronzes. And setting world records, 
such as in the 100-metre women's run and the 400-metre men's run. 
And when these impressive young men and women are asked to whom 
they dedicate their medals, they don't hesitate: all respond 
"To Fidel, to Raul, to my mother, my family, my community, and 
to the people of Cuba who are bravely battling the hurricane!"
 
Saludos a todos/as, Susan Hurlich