Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association Toronto

CUBA AND CIVIL DEFENSE -

AN EXAMPLE FOR ALL COUNTRIES TO LEARN FROM

 The Cuba government has one of the best, if not the best,  Civil Defenses in the world.  The United Nations confirms this.  So why does Harper and the Canadian government – blindly copying the Bush administration of refusing to send aid to the Cuban govenment which it calls corrupt –– except to NGOs?   The Cuban government is one of the least corrupt governments – their elected leaders ‘put their money where their mouth is.’   Not like the promises of our politicans.  

Excerpts from Susan Hurlich’s email updates on Hurricane Gustav/Ike (from Havana)  Sep/08  

An important part of Cuba's system of Civil Defense - perhaps the key thing that truly makes it work well - is that the country has created a culture of prevention, a culture of protection, and a culture of collective recuperation. These are not insignificant things. In creating this culture, its created a consciousness among the people, the simplest of whom are exceedingly wise about what to do, when and how. It's also created a culture of collectivism. People take care of each other, they're aware of each other, they're not "in it" only for themselves. And there's no "show", no "taking credit". It's simply the way things are. Those of you who have lived here or visited here have seen this for yourselves, in one way or another. A culture of caring. It has nothing to do with whether or not you like a particular individual, nothing at all. A culture of caring is simply about the recognition that "the other" has the same value as a human being as you do, the same right to live and "take space" in the world. Cuba has developed this to a very high degree, and it shows brilliantly at times like this. 

I've been getting lots of emails and phone calls from people all over - for which I deeply thank you. Not only is it heartening to know the tremendous outpouring of concern for Cuba and the Cuban people that many are feeling, but the personal support is also helpful to me.  And when I told some Cuban friends about the recuperation assistance that Canadian groups and individuals are already mobilizing, they said they were very touched by this. One person even cried, saying that the hand of solidarity and friendship from outside the country is one of the things that helps Cubans get through this. 

But listen to this. Here's what one friend said: "Sitting here comfortably in Toronto it all seems a bit unreal, and I don’t think we will get much information from the standard media, as Cuba is not given much shrift. Besides, when the death toll is substantial elsewhere, the relative sparing for Cuba makes it seem like small potatoes, since nobody bothers to ask why the same storm leads to relatively few casualties." 

Sad, but true, eh? Here Cuba has one of the finest, if not THE finest, Civil Defense system in the world - the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and statistics don't lie. [Editor: The United Nations confirms this.] Cuba loses very, very few people when hurricanes strike. Part of the reason, and if I've said this before, that's ok, as it bears repeating, is that not only does Cuba have a highly efficiently organized Civil Defense system, developed since 1963 when the horrendous Flora struck eastern Cuba and left thousands dead in its wake, but the people have confidence in their Civil Defense system. You can legislate a Civil Defense system. But you can't legislate the confidence of the people. That's something that is GAINED, over the years, through proven action.

 So what's happened is that while there is a Civil Defense system, it's as if ALL the people, the entire population, is actually part of the Civil Defense system. There's no panic. There's no running chaotically. People know what they have to do and where they have to do, and they do it in a timely way. And the Civil Defense authorities know where everyone is. Everyone is accounted for. No one is invisible. No one is without a name. 

Some examples: Civil Defense has a very good idea of what areas need to be evacuated, what areas are potentially vulnerable to inundations, penetration of the ocean, flooding, landslides, etc. They know how many people are there. And the evacuation centres are prepared in time. That's the key: in time. The other key is: organization and discipline. The final key: confidence. As always happens, at least 85% or more of the people to be evacuated wind up going to the homes of friends or family elsewhere.

But Civil Defense knows this! When they give evacuation figures, they're able to say, always, that such-and-such a number of people are in the evacuation shelters, and such-and-such a number of evacuees are sheltered in homes of family or friends. No one is invisible. Shouldn't that be a normal thing? That no one is invisible? Shouldn't that be something that people should just be able to assume?

Why is it that the normal, the human, has become revolutionary? Shouldn't it just be part of being human? Unfortunately, as we know all too painfully, it's not. For instance, we don't even know how many really died in New Orleans during Katrina! Isn't that a crime? Of course! And the silence, at both official levels as well as in the press... 

...I realized that after sending out my last update, with the list of "firsts", there was an important one that I didn't mention. As you know, Cuba's phone capacity and quality has been greatly improving over the past number of years, thanks to a substantial agreement with and investment from Italy [ editor: as the US blockade prevented Cuba from repairing/updating the original US installed phone systems].  

This year, for the first time, the national ETECSA phone company is offering the population an additional service: special phone numbers which, from anywhere in the country, can link right into Radio Reloj for up-to-the-minute news and weather reports on the hurricane, as well as other news. There are also special numbers for reporting problems with the telephone or electricity. Perhaps your phone doesn't work, but someone else's does. It's a new service and one that is being highly appreciated and used by the population. For Radio Reloj, there's no waiting. The calls go through immediately. 

Which brings me to a final comment about Cuba's Civil Defense system: it's dynamic, responsive, fluid, flexible, always searching for ways to improve how it functions, the services that are provided to the population. 

In Cuba, it's impossible to be invisible, impossible to be silent. No one can simply disappear. Even if the anti-Cuban press wants to make us think that there's no landmass between Haiti and Jamaica and Florida, we know it's there. And it's called Cuba!

Hello everyone:

This email, however, is about something much more immediate and of much greater collective concern: the imminent arrival of Hurricane Ike.

I'm sure you're all following Ike's path and developments, as well as the heroic and extremely efficient recuperation efforts in the wake of Hurricane Gustav - which, as you know, did horrendous damage in Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Rio, but which also shows an impressive victory by the Cuban people and its system of Civil Defense in that not one life was lost.

What a tragedy that we can't say the same for Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and even the U.S., all of which had loss of life, especially Haiti.

I'm writing this email to give you an idea of the "feel" on the streets, what people are saying, what people are doing. As of noon today, Ike remains a category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 215 kph and gusts higher. It's 270 km east of Isla Inagua Grande in the eastern Bahamas and 465 km east of Punta Lucrecia in Holguin, moving eastsoutheast at 24 kph.

All the eastern provinces, from Camaguey to Guantanamo, are in the Alarm Phase. Cuban Civil Defense has four phases for hurricanes: Information, Alert, Alarm and Recuperation. Ciego de Avila west to and including Matanzas are in the Information Phase. CubaVision (TV) as well as Radio Rebelde are already dedicating full-time reporting to what's happening in all the eastern provinces: the state of preparations (evacuations, for instance, virtually complete in many locations), mobilized support services (health, food preparation, etc.), the status of dams (i.e., their existing capacity and how much additional water they can accept; if they're super-full, the spillways are open to increase their capacity), etc. Coastal areas are being virtually cleared out as heavy inundations are anticipated - and the Instituto de Meteorologia is saying that its direct impact on Cuba - meaning its presence on Cuban territory - will likely last for at least two full days. Reports are also saying that it's the first time since 1959 that a hurricane this strong has the potential to affect such a large part of Cuba.

Aside: in the evacuation centres, not only are evacuees given health and food support, but there are also culture and indoor sports programs, as well as ongoing information programs.

This morning, at about 9am, I called family and friends in Baracoa, Guantanamo. At that time, heavy rains were already falling, and in the local meteorological station about 20 km outside Baracoa, gusts of 120 kph were being registered. Even people in areas that don't flood are taking precautions, boarding up their windows for reinforcement from the anticipated strong winds. And people from lower areas are seeking shelter in the homes of family and friends on the higher grounds of Baracoa. (For instance, some four families in the home of my in-laws.) It's anticipated that in another eight or so hours (possibly by 10pm or so tonight), Ike will actually be on Cuban territory, and although it's entry point will likely be somewhere between Camaguey and Holguin, it's an immense system and its hurricane winds and torrential rains will (are already) affect a huge area.

Aside: I had a long interruption - two visitors - since I wrote the above, and now it's a couple of hours later. It's now just before 3pm as I continue writing...

About half an hour ago, I called Baracoa - my in-laws; the phone lines are still working - to find out how things are, and to give them the latest news about Baracoa that was just on the TV. The electricity in Baracoa was cut at 11 this morning and they don't have a radio, so as long as the phone is working, they said they're counting on me to be their "news reporter" about what's happening in their area. Here's what the TV said - and keep in mind that Ike is still some eight hours EAST of Baracoa! Gusts about 130-140 kph and one recorded at over 200 kph; 50 mm of rain in 24 hours; over 24,200 evacuated from around the municipality of whom over 23,500 are in the homes of family and friends (this is typical; the extremely high solidarity among Cubans. Even so, the 21 evacuation centres that exist in the municipality were prepared to receive the full number); over 3,000 students from residential schools already at home; some coastal areas such as Turey already flooding; some trees and posts down. This morning, Sunday, all ration stores were open in Baracoa so that people could buy what they wanted. And, to repeat, Ike is still over 200 km east of Baracoa.

Here in Havana, we had heavy rains all morning, not related to Ike but, as people on the street were saying, part of the rains that Gustav was supposed to drop but didn't. Lines at the stores - whether peso or CUC - are immense, going out to the street and along the sidewalk. The CUC bakeries are sold out. The peso bakeries are the priority, though, and are working full time, with long lines. At the peso bakery nearest my house, the line is over a block long. I just went to mark my place in line, and will return in an hour to hopefully buy bread - if it hasn't already been sold out in which case more batches will be in the oven.

The big concern that everyone has is that Ike might well be similar to Hurricane Dennis, which entered Cuba as a category 4 hurricane in July 2005 (the year of Katrina, just over a month later), and left in its wake ten of the country's fourteen provinces seriously affected and 16 deaths, one of the highest in Cuba since 1959. For Hurricane Ike, most of the 15 hurricane diagnostic tools show it morning northwest after it enters Cuba, and since Cuba's landmass itself goes northwest, this means that Ike will most likely blast right up the length of the island, possibly all the way to Pinar del Rio! And it'll hit both sides of the country. It's about as wide as Gustav (over 250 km in radius), and when you consider that Cuba's width ranges only between 31 and 191 km, well, you can see the kind of damage that a strong hurricane could cause if it marches up the island.

And imagine the irony, actually, a painful irony, of seeing the news report on TV a couple of nights ago, of Santiago de Cuba filling two ships with roofing sheets and 500- and 1,000-gallon water tanks to send to Isla de la Juventud, and preparing a train shipment with the same for Pinar del Rio - well, imagine this going on at the same time that Santiago de Cuba is simultaneously preparing for the arrival of Ike.

It's an awful lot for one country! But then I keep thinking of Haiti, and the consequences of what happens when a nation has neither the politics nor the ability to prepare are sobering. But then, as we know, Haiti is an internationally-caused tragedy...

There's much more to say, but I know that you can also get a lot of the "data" information on Internet. I'll continue to try sending you updates giving you a sense of what people are doing and how they're feeling. I'm sending this to the entire executive, but in each email, I can't sent to more than five people at one time. It's one of the logistical limitations of the Cuban "enet" server...

More later. Abrazos para todos/as de Susan

Several people have also written asking if I know about any plans in Canada to organize hurricane reconstruction assistance for Cuba. I understand that the CNC (Canadian Network on Cuba, an umbrella organization for Canadian friendship and solidarity groups) is organizing and sponsoring a campaign. I don't have the details, and would appreciate hearing what campaigns are being organized, as on this end, people are very interested to hear about this.

Very warm embraces to all,

Sent: Monday, 8 September, 2008 15:03:55
Subject: Hurricane Ike - update #3

Hello all.

To say that it's estimated that by tonight, the city of Havana will start to get its first tropical storm winds, meaning sustained winds between 63 and 117 kph. We're already in what's called the Alarm Phase, with Pinar del Rio and the Isla de la Juventud now in the Information Phase.

As of 10 this morning, Ike was a category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 155 kph and a central pressure of 960. Being over land always reduces the force of hurricanes, and when its mountains, it's even more so. But to give you an idea of what that means: Hurricane Lili (October 1996) was a category 2 hurricane. No lives were lost (if I remember correctly), but it affected seven provinces, damaging some 146,000 houses and completely destroying another 10,000. The greatest damage, though, was to agriculture: citrus, rice, banana and other vegetable crops, platano, sugar, coffee, and there were significant damages to industries, high tension posts, bridges, road, forests, etc. This is just to give you an idea of what a category 2 hurricane means!

Anyway, Ike is now moving westsouthwest at 22 kph. And it's important to analyze what this means. Keep in mind the shape of Cuba: a feisty little crocodile basking in the sun while lying in a northwest direction. So if Ike is moving westsouthwest, that means it's going to enter the ocean for a while, which in fact is going to happen sometime later today in the southern part of the province of Ciego de Avila. The ocean. The Caribbean to be exact. The very warm Caribbean to be even more exact. Temperatures around 31-32 degrees celsius. Just the kind of fuel that Ike needs to start growing again in intensity. Then, as all hurricanes when they come into the Caribbean, it'll start heading a bit westnorthwest. But we won't know how much its "tilt" will be until it's actually there, and that's what will then provide an insight into whether it - that is, the eye - passes over Matanzas, or Provincia Habana, or Ciudad de La Habana, or Pinar del Rio, or or or... So for those of you who are following Ike on Internet, be sure to keep your eyes on its movements once it's in the water...

I've just called Baracoa. The sun is out and people are slowly returning to their homes to assess the damages. There is still no electricity. In my mother-in-law's home some of the 14 people who sought shelter there - as I mentioned, it's a high-ground home with cement walls and roof - are still there. It's a small house, three bedrooms but small. She explained that she organized where everyone would sleep, between the beds and chairs and whatnot. Cooking was very well organized as each family group had brought some food which was shared among all. Water, which at the moment isn't running in the pipes, was very carefully and sparingly used from the three large barrels. Their dog Tribolin didn't budge the entire time from under the kitchen table. Early last night, the locally elected delegado brought over a little battery-run radio so that people could get news. So I was able to "retire" from my phone calls to the group every 3-4 hours! I'm mentioning in some detail what went on in my in-law's home as this will give you an idea of what goes on in ALL homes where lots of people gather during hurricanes. Nothing chaotic. Nothing desperate. People organizing and cooperating and pooling their resources and keeping each other's spirits up.

And it's the same everywhere. For instance, in my home in Vedado, if Ike is to make a more direct and vicious hit, a friend of mine who lives near the coast in western Havana will bring his car over and put it into my garage. And there's a family of five who live on the top floor of an apartment building who will come to my house to pass the hurricane here.

Another detail about hurricanes: maximum sustained winds can measure one thing "on the ground", but as you go up floor by floor in a highrise, the sustained wind gets more intense the higher and higher you get. My sister-in-law Dania lives on a second floor in the southern Havana municipality of San Francisco del Paula. she just called to say that they're taking things off the walls and bringing all the plants indoors, as they plan to lock up the house and go to her husband's parent's house downstairs.

Everyone preparing...

I spoke with another friend in Baracoa. Some of you know him: Roberto, one of the finest if not THE finest archaeologist in that part of the country. I had been trying to call him and his family all day yesterday and the day before, but as no one was answering I assumed they had been evacuated as they live just across the street from the Malecon. Luckily in the one area that's a tiny bit higher, but that one metre of elevation makes all the difference. Anyway, I found them home this morning. Miraculously nothing was destroyed in their home, but yesterday morning when he and others were taking some of the valuable things out of the house - his work computer, the TV, clothing, electodomestic appliances, etc. - waves were already higher than the house, which is two stories. In fact, waves finally got as high as FIVE stories before Ike left that zone, with sustained winds of 140 kph and gusts up to 180 km, and up to 280 mm of rain falling in many places of the province (plus in Santiago de Cuba) in a 24-hour period.

The home of one of Roberto's daughters, however, was completely destroyed. She lives a short distance away but nearer the beach area. All that's left is rubble. The fridge was carried away and they still haven't found it. But they said that they have the most important thing, the most important resource, intact: their lives! Because - as I wrote some years ago during Hurricane Katrina - you can rebuild a house. You can rebuild a bridge. You can repair roads and towers and agricultural fields. But what you can't build anew is one lost life, one missing person. And Cuba is a country that knows that the only riches that count, that truly count, is human life. Everything else is peripheral, like clothes that can be shed and you still have a human being, an essential living and breathing and thinking and feeling and creative human being.

This brings me to some other things that I'd like to say...

I've been getting lots of emails and phone calls from people all over - for which I deeply thank you. Not only is it heartening to know the tremendous outpouring of concern for Cuba and the Cuban people that many are feeling, but the personal support is also helpful to me. And when I told some Cuban friends about the recuperation assistance that Canadian groups and individuals are already mobilizing, they said they were very touched by this. One person even cried, saying that the hand of solidarity and friendship from outside the country is one of the things that helps Cubans get through this.

But listen to this. Here's what one friend said:

"Sitting here comfortably in Toronto it all seems a bit unreal, and I don’t think we will get much information from the standard media, as Cuba is not given much shrift. Besides, when the death toll is substantial elsewhere, the relative sparing for Cuba makes it seem like small potatoes, since nobody bothers to ask why the same storm leads to relatively few casualties."

Sad, but true, eh? Here Cuba has one of the finest, if not THE finest, Civil Defense system in the world - the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and statistics don't lie. Cuba loses very, very few people when hurricanes strike. Part of the reason, and if I've said this before, that's ok, as it bears repeating, is that not only does Cuba have a highly efficiently organized Civil Defense system, developed since 1963 when the horrendous Flora struck eastern Cuba and left thousands dead in its wake, but the people have confidence in their Civil Defense system. You can legislate a Civil Defense system. But you can't legislate the confidence of the people. That's something that is GAINED, over the years, through proven action. So what's happened is that while there is a Civil Defense system, it's as if ALL the people, the entire population, is actually part of the Civil Defense system. There's no panic. There's no running chaotically. People know what they have to do and where they have to do, and they do it in a timely way. And the Civil Defense authorities know where everyone is. Everyone is accounted for. No one is invisible. No one is without a name.

Some examples: Civil Defense has a very good idea of what areas need to be evacuated, what areas are potentially vulnerable to inundations, penetration of the ocean, flooding, landslides, etc. They know how many people are there. And the evacuation centres are prepared in time. That's the key: in time. The other key is: organization and discipline. The final key: confidence. As always happens, at least 85% or more of the people to be evacuated wind up going to the homes of friends or family elsewhere. But Civil Defense knows this! When they give evacuation figures, they're able to say, always, that such-and-such a number of people are in the evacuation shelters, and such-and-such a number of evacuees are sheltered in homes of family or friends. No one is invisible. Shouldn't that be a normal thing? That no one is invisible? Shouldn't that be something that people should just be able to assume? Why is it that the normal, the human, has become revolutionary? Shouldn't it just be part of being human?

Unfortunately, as we know all to painfully, it's not. For instance, we don't even know how many really died in New Orleans during Katrina! Isn't that a crime? Of course! And the silence, at both official levels as well as in the press...

In Cuba, it's impossible to be invisible, impossible to be silent. No one can simply disappear. Even if the anti-Cuban press wants to make us think that there's no landmass between Haiti and Jamaica and Florida, we know it's there. And it's called Cuba! And what's most "threatening" about it is that it shows that some things can be done well - and Civil Defense is one of them. Even in Pinar del Rio and the the Isla, the construction and electricity brigades from other provinces already know where they're supposed to go if Ike strikes. And they're already taking precautions to minimize potential damage to the reconstruction that's already taken place. (On the news this morning, we heard interviews with some of the members of these contingents...)

Another interesting thing: here Ike is still on Cuban land, and will most likely be on Cuban land again after it goes into the Caribbean Ocean. But evaluations are already taking place in Baracoa, in Holguin - the "city of parks" that, among other losses, has lost lots of trees from these parks - to assess the extent of damages that were sustained. High government officials are also present, helping in the evaluative missions in these areas. Machado, first vice-president, Lage, vice-president, Lazo, vice-president, Cintra Frias, member of the Council of State, and many, many others. Among the first areas they go are to those areas that are incomunicado.

This has turned into a longer update than I anticipated, and I better send it out. I'll try to send another one later today, and, if and and when electricity goes out, I have enough battery power to send out at least a last note to let you know.

Warm embraces to all. Susan Hurlich

Hola:

All day we've been increasingly getting the "hurricane sky". That's when the sky gets full of darkening clouds that appear as if you're looking at the bottom of a huge drum top, and they move in an immense counterclockwise circle. We've also been getting increasingly stronger wind gusts although nothing really serious yet. And it's started to rain more stop start stop start but with the feeling that it'll eventually not stop until Ike passes north of Cuba.

The other weather forecaster I have here in my house are my two cats, one of whom is getting increasingly more anxious, going outside to look up at the sky and then crying worriedly. It's the change in atmospheric pressure that he feels and he doesn't like it. It's the same as when horses start to panic and want to run when they feel the deep tremous in the ground from an imminent earthquake, even if everything is appearing on the surface.

These two back-to-back hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, have been firsts in many way.

A first: two category 4 hurricanes battering Cuba within a very short time. Never before has the country been hit by such strong hurricanes back-to-back.

A first: the extent of penetration of the sea in Baracoa, up to six blocks, something which has never happened before.

A first: Las Tunas evacuated more people than it's ever done in its history.

A first: Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Rio passing from the Information Phase directly to the Alarm Phase, without going through the Alert Phase. This has never happened before in Cuba and relates to a certain unpredictability of Ike on the southern coast of Cuba.

As of 8pm, Ike is a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 kph. The gusts are going up to some 200 kph though, so it's still a serious hurricane. The central pressure if 966 and it's moving 20 kph in a west to a westnorthwest direction. The eye is skimming the southern coast of Cuba, meaning that there's a large penetration into Cuban territory of winds and gusts of hurricane force, and the southern coast is having serious penetrations and floods. It's almost perfectly round and it's immense. Right now it's about 55 km east of Cienfuegos but its strong rain and wind "rings" - and don't forget, it has two! which is another unusual feature - extend a significant distance beyond the northern side of the island and the eastern part of the country - the Oriente - up through Santiago de Cuba is still getting rain - plus we're already getting Ike-related rains well to the west of where it is presently located.

But because the eye is skimming the coast, this impedes it from strengthening, at the moment, much beyond a category 1 hurricane. If, however, it distances itself just a bit from the coast, it'll immediately start getting stronger.

And the serious thing about Ike is the rains, which are heaviest BEHIND the eye, in other words, to Ike's west. And Cuba has already had lots of rain first from Fay, and then from Gustav, and now with Ike being the wettest of all three, there's very serious concerns - and constant alerts - about heavy flooding and land slides in the entire Escambray mountain range in the southern part of the provinces of Villa Clara to Cienfuegos to Sancti Spiritus.

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, it'll be in the southern coast of Matanzas. That will be about the time that we'll know more clearly what part of western Cuba - the Occidente - will have the "pleasure" of its eye. At the moment, it could be anywhere from western Pinar del Rio to the eastern side of Provincia Habana, or even over the city of Habana itself. Just don't know at the moment. But whether it does or doesn't, for the city of Habana and the Occidente in general, the most difficult time will be from mid-day tomorrow, Tuesday, into tomorrow night.

This morning, thirteen of Cuba's fourteen provinces were in the Alarm Phase, with the Isla (a special municipality, as you know, rather than a province) and the province of Pinar del Rio being in the Information Phase. Now the latter two are in the Alarm Phase. I don't know if this is another "first", that is, that the entire country, every province,  has been in the Alarm Phase during the same hurricane.

As well, for the Isla and Pinar del Rio, the Alarm Phase has also meant a full suspension, for the moment, of recuperation efforts, with a focus on protecting the work done to date and ensuring the protection of the material resouces that have been sent there to date.

While all this is going on, we're already starting to get preliminary reports from Oriente about some of the damage caused by Ike, and in some areas, such as Baracoa, else in Guantanamo, and even Holguin under rains, recuperative programs are already starting. For instance, the Farola, that beautiful road that connects Baracoa on the northern coast with the southern coast of the province, and from there to the capital city of Guantanamo and the rest of Cuba (there's a road from Baracoa on the northern coast that goes to Moa in Holguin province, but it's in very bad shape) has already been cleared of fallen trees and posts. And earlier this evening, the first trucks began to arrive in Baracoa carrying roofing tiles, steel beams, wood, etc. Three of the city's six electric circuits have already been repaired and it's hoped that the other three will be operative sometime tomorrow. This country doesn't wait to get things going! Ike is still battering Cuba, and will continue to do so for another day and a half at the lease, and the eastern part of the country is already engaged in recuperation. With a tremendous outsurge of participation by the people to clean streets of debris, assist with the distribution of materials, sift through rubble for not only their own belongings, but help others who have perhaps been more unfortunate, etc.

Other areas, though, such as Camaguey, can't begin even basic clean up as it's still heavily pouring all over the province, since early last night. And all over, some municipalities are still incomunicado, for the destruction to the communication / electrical system, for the roads blocked with fallen trees and posts, for the overflowing rivers. And the reports that are coming from these areas, by radio interviews on the TV, show that people are anxious to start the work of recuperation... there's a hunger to get beyond the hurricane experience and to get into rebuilding and back to normalcy.

All the above brings me to another observation: An important part of Cuba's system of Civil Defense - perhaps the key thing that truly makes it work well - is that the country has created a culture of prevention, a culture of protection, and a culture of collective recuperation. These are not insignificant things. In creating this culture, its created a consciousness among the people, the simplest of whom are exceedingly wise about what to do, when and how. It's also created a culture of collectivism. People take care of each other, they're aware of each other, they're not "in it" only for themselves. And there's no "show", no "taking credit". It's simply the way things are. Those of you who have lived here or visited here have seen this for yourselves, in one way or another.

A culture of caring. It has nothing to do with whether or not you like a particular individual, nothing at all. A culture of caring is simply about the recognition that "the other" has the same value as a human being as you do, the same right to live and "take space" in the world. Cuba has developed this to a very high degree, and it shows brilliantly at times like this.

It's now 8:30pm and I'll stop here to take advantage of the electricity and light to send it out. I've been receiving calls from others in Havana saying they think the lights will go out soon. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think we'll have electricity all night. In any event, I already have my candles and matches at hand, and the batteris in my little Sony radio. And before I sat down to write this, I took the plants off the veranda - my living room is now a jungle! And a bit earlier this afternoon, I checked the drains on the roof, rolled up the rubber water tube and put it under the water tank up there, and recleared out the drains in the garage. What with the wind all day and lots of little leaves flying here and there, they had gotten slightly plugged up again from the cleaning I did several days ago.

With luck - and electricity of course! - I'll send another update. If not, I'll send an "aftermath" email.

Abrazos carinosos para todos/as, Susana Hurlich

Sent: Tuesday, 9 September, 2008 15:42:03
Subject: Hurricane Ike - update #5 (on battery)

Hola all:

As you can see, since this update is "on battery", the city of Habana is without electricity. This will be my last update until after Ike passes and electricity is reestablished.

As those of you who are hurricane and Cuba watchers know, Ike entered the west of Cuba - the Occidente - just past 10 this morning, on the border between Pinar del Rio and Provincia Habana. And it's anticipated that it'll leave northern Cuba sometime between 3-4pm in the municipality of Manuel Sanguily. For those of you who are following this on maps, Manuel Sanguily is northeast of the city of Pinar del Rio, with the lovely tourist area of Cayo Levisa just immediately north.

Ike is still a category 1 hurricane. Here in Havana, gusts of over 90 kph were already being recorded about 10 last night.  The biggest danger that Ike brings to this part of the country is its winds, torrential rains and especially coastal inundations. The fact that it's WEST of Habana is good news for Habana, because although we'll get increasingly heavy winds and rains as the day (and into the night) progresses, we won't get as much flooding as we would have if Ike were passing east of the city. This is because since a hurricane's movement is counterclockwise, the strongest flood-causing winds are when the wind comes around from the bottom of the hurricane and hits the coastline to the left of the eye. But there are still parts of the Havana coastline, such as Miramar, coastal Marianao, etc. which will get inundated.

Even once the eye enters the Gulf of Mexico, because Ike is so large, the Occidente will continue to get winds and rains long after it leaves Cuban territory. Even now, while it's in Occidente, it's still raining in the central provinces: Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus. And the accumulation of the rains is huge: in a 24-hour period, 300 mm in parts of Sancti Spiritus, over 160 mm in parts of Villa Clara and Cienfuegos. I don't remember if I mentioned in one of my previous updates that it was over 400 mm in parts of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba.

As for the destructive capacity of Ike, as Jose Rubiera - Cuba's brilliant, articulate, highly popular and "if Rubiera said it, it must be true" meteorologist, with the gift of turning all his weather reports into mini-universities for the population - ,when a hurricane increases by one category, there is a four-fold geometric increase in its destructive capacity (especially of the winds). Gustav entered Cuba as a category 4 hurricane. Ike is now a category 1 hurricane. This means that Gustav was 16 times more destructive than Ike at the moment. This is, of course, good news for the Occidente. As Rubiera says "Ike no es ninguna sombre de que fue Gustav" - "Ike isn't any kind of shadow to what Gustav was..."

But it's still a hurricane. And it'll still do damage.

What it's already done is horrendous. Even without having quantified details of the extent of damages - some areas where it's already passed are still incomunicado and/or inaccessible due to flooded rivers and fallen trees blocking roads - what we DO know is sobering. For example, this morning I got a call from a friend whose mother, sister and one-year-old niece live in Mayari Abajo on the northern coast of Holguin. For those of you who like to locate things on maps, you may not find Mayari Abajo noted as it's so tiny, but it's located between Nicaro and Guatemala, near the mouth of the Mayari River, on the western side of Bahia de Nipe. The houses are old in many of these communities, which date back to the 18th or 19th century. Almost all  houses have either been totally or partially destroyed, losing their roofs if nothing else. The same thing in tiny communities like Antiga, also on the northern coast of Holguin. Some people from these areas - and don't forget, it was the northern coast of Holguin that took the force of Ike's entry into Cuba - are saying that the material destruction of Ike is much worse than what happened under Hurricane Flora back in October 1963.

To give you an idea of what this comment means, because while Flora is an important post-1959 reference for just how bad a hurricane can get - Cuba's Civil Defense started to get organized during this catastrophe - one doesn't often hear people say "this hurricane is worse than Flora".  A category 3 hurricane that swept through the eastern part of Cuba, it was the monstruous rains and inundations of Flora that left over 1,000 dead in its wake and accumulated rains of over 1,200 mm. And the material damage was horrible. So to hear Cubans from areas such as Mayari Abajo or Antiga make these kinds of comments is also another indicator of just serious the situation is. The material destruction has been / is being massive and brutal!

And, as you know, there are at least four recorded deaths. Hopefully the number won't rise, but there is concern as we still don't know what's happening in a number of isolated areas that can't yet be reached since the passage of Ike.

Here in Habana, the rains and winds are steadily increasing in intensity. In my neighbourhood, in Vedado, every now and then you can hear something metalic or solid being swept along the street, or hitting the side of a building. Something that has no doubt been swept from the top of someone's roof. Even a broom stick can become a deadly lance in a strong gust of wind.

I realized that after sending out my last update, with the list of "firsts", there was an important one that I didn't mention. As you know, Cuba's phone capacity and quality has been greatly improving over the past number of years, thanks to a substantial agreement with and investment from Italy. This year, for the first time, the national ETECSA phone company is offering the population an addidtional service: special phone numbers which, from anywhere in the country, can link right into Radio Reloj for up-to-the-minute news and weather reports on the hurricane, as well as other news. There are also special numbers for reporting problems with the telephone or electricity. Perhaps your phone doesn't work, but someone else's does. It's a new service and one that is being highly appreciated and used by the population. For Radio Reloj, there's no waiting. The calls go through immediately.

Which brings me to a final comment about Cuba's Civil Defense system: it's dynamic, responsive, fluid, flexible, always searching for ways to improve how it functions, the services that are provided to the population.

OK, I'll send this out now. Won't be able to send any others until after Ike passes. But if you want to call, lovely! My phone number is (537) 833-8971 - and I'm not going anywhere! At least not until Ike passes...

Saludos para todos/as, Susana Hurlich

Canadian Network on Cuba 

www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca

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Hurricane Gustav and  Ike and in November: Paloma - Cuba Relief and Re-Construction Campaign

Information on how to donate at end of letter.

2 September, 2008 / updated:  November, 2008 

Almost 600,000 homes damaged - over 90,000 totally destroyed. Massive damage to all areas of the country - to roads, hydro, factories, farms and farm animals, schools and other public buildings.