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Cuban Media Plays
Up Castro in Hurricane
The Associated Press. Yahoo!
News.
HAVANA, 15 (AP) - Fidel Castro was a constant
presence during Hurricane Ivan's approach
to the island nation this week, appearing
for hours on state television to assuage
Cubans' fears, underscoring his larger-than-life
role in this socialist society.
"Ivan couldn't go up against Fidel,"
read a headline in the Communist Party youth
paper Juventud Rebelde on Wednesday. A poem
read over state radio Tuesday night said
Castro's "thumb" pushed Ivan away
from the island and into the Gulf of Mexico.
On Monday, hours before Ivan struck, Castro
traveled to the western province of Pinar
del Rio to discuss disaster preparations
with authorities. Residents shouted: "Fidel!
Fidel!" when his caravan passed.
One woman in the tobacco-growing region
said residents were happy to have their
leader close by. "Fidel protects us
from all bad things," 78-year-old Elsa
Ramos said Monday.
Castro appeared live on state television
for several consecutive days, discussing
weather patterns with the island's top meteorologist
and asking Civil Defense officials about
evacuation plans.
State-run media on Wednesday played up
Castro's role in preparedness plans and
applauded local organizations for evacuating
nearly 1.9 million of the island's 11.3
million citizens.
No deaths or injuries were reported in
Cuba after Ivan one of the most powerful
storms to strike the Caribbean in the past
century swept past Cuba's western tip Monday
before heading toward the United States.
Ivan killed at least 68 people in Jamaica,
Grenada, Venezuela, Tobago, Barbados, the
Dominican Republic and Haiti.
In the first official damage report, authorities
told Juventud Rebelde that Ivan damaged
more than 1,600 tobacco curing houses in
Pinar del Rio's, 80 percent of orange and
grapefruit harvests and 2,680 hectares of
banana groves. No monetary figures were
given for the damage.
Hurricane Ivan dominated media coverage
for nearly a week leading to its arrival.
As Ivan followed a route that initially
was expected to bring it straight through
Cuba's capital, Castro attended state television's
nightly "Mesa Redonda" discussion
program.
During the live discussions, Castro chatted
with Jose Rubiera, head of Cuba's National
Meteorology Institute, about how hurricanes
form, the history of major storms, and Ivan's
likely trajectory.
Castro also addressed the need to protect
schools and farm animals, with program host
Randy Alonso frequently nodding in agreement.
One night when Rubiera, a household name
in Cuba, wasn't present, Castro tracked
him down on cell phone and repeated the
meteorologist's answers aloud for the audience.
"I don't know if there exists in the
world another president who puts aside his
other functions to line up alongside his
people," writer Celia Hart wrote in
a Juventud Rebelde opinion article.
When it became clear Ivan would spare Havana,
capital residents relaxed. But they still
looked to Castro as they worried about friends
and family in the west.
"Fidel hauled us to engaged safety,
with his smile and multiple physical expressions,"
wrote Hart. "It was as if he was the
one who sealed the windows of my house."
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