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Cuba

Cuba: Situation Report No. 3 Hurricane Ike 11 Sep 2008 18:00 hrs

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Situation:

Since the end of August, Cuba has suffered in a very short period of time the direct or indirect impact of three hurricanes: GUSTAV, the most devastating in the past 50 years; HANNA, which, although did not make a direct strike at the Island, caused flooding in the Eastern part of the country and IKE, which advanced through all the national territory

The main damage have so far been reported on housing and the power grid, although the agriculturaland cattle sector has also been severely affected

Although IKE is already far from the Cuban territory its influence continues to be felt in the western-most part of the nation. According to Advisory Note 30 from Cuba's Weather Office, the hurricane's associated rains will be felt strongly today in the province of Pinar del Rio and there remains the danger of coastal flooding in low-lying areas in Pinar del Río´s western end and in the southern coast of Havana province.

Measures adopted by the Government of Cuba

The National Headquarters of Cuban Civil Defense, in its Note 9, of today, decided to declare the Recuperative Phase in the province of Pinar del Rio.

In the agricultural sector, emphasis is placed on the recovery of produce for human and animal consumption, clearing up the coffee fields of thousands of trees felled by the storm and planting crops of a short cycle.

Special attention is given to carefully attending and properly feeding all persons who remain protected at official installations.

Affected educational centers will introduce different strategies for the resumption of the school year, such as moving classrooms, regrouping students, applying only one session of classes and the use of other sites, such as private homes and/or state-owned buildings. Today the new school year began in Santiago de Cuba and Granma provinces.

All provinces are working in the restoration of electricity service in the affected areas.

The situation at the nation's water reservoirs is closely monitored, specially attending to measuring the amount of rain fall.

Health authorities are reinforcing vigilance in the areas affected by flooding and the overflowing of rivers and creeks in order to prevent possibleoutbreaks of diseases.

The National Housing Institute is planning to offer advisory and quality control support to those interested in restoring their home-many of them without technical building knowledge - since the population itself provides 70% of the work force for reconstruction. This technical advice would avoid bigger building damage in the future.

Preliminary Damage:

According to Victor Ramirez, President of the National Housing Institute, hurricane IKE caused damage in over 200,000 homes in Cuba, of which 30,000 are a total loss. If the damage caused by the previous store, GUSTAV, is added, then the amount of damaged homes amounts to 320,000, most of which had their roofs blown away or damaged.

The following figures of damage are additional to those included in previous Situation Reports:

Guantánamo province

Total number of evacuees amounts to 116,000, most of them in the Baracoa, Guantánamo, El Salvador, Punta de Maisi, Yateras and San Antonio del Sur counties.

Agriculture and fisheries:

Heavily affected are the coffee and manioc plantations and other crops in full activity, such as guava and avocados. Preliminary figures indicate that some 300,000 tins of coffee are lost, with the biggest losses recorded in Maisi and Yateras, with 144,000 and 107,000 lost tins, respectively.

The plantations of bananas, a staple in this province, suffered huge losses in virtually all counties: Maisi, Yateras, Baracoa and Guantánamo, being the most damaged.

Power Grid

Electricity blackouts continued to affect some populated areas in the province.

Hydraulic situation

The Jaibo and Los Asientos reservoirs are feeding the respective rivers, while La Yaya is 99% full. Flooding was reported in Imias country due to the overflowing of the Toa, Macaguanica and El Jobo rivers.

Housing

Over 10,000 homes affected, 300 of them being a total loss.

Roads

Road connections between Punta de Maisi and Yateras were cut.