CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Cuba imposes strict response
Cuba evacuated nearly
1.9 million people facing the wrath of Hurricane
Ivan with remarkable effectiveness.
By Juan
O. Tamayo And Nancy San Martin. Posted
on Fri, Sep. 17, 2004.
Cuba's state TV and radio monopoly was
all Ivan all the time. Volunteers went door
to door announcing evacuations for the Category
5 hurricane, and police followed them to
enforce the order. President Fidel Castro,
as always, went to the province most threatened
-- before Ivan arrived.
In the end, Ivan barely brushed the westernmost
province of Pinar del Río, destroying
several homes, flooding some areas and knocking
down power lines and trees but causing no
deaths.
The country's evacuation of nearly 1.9
million people from coastal and flood-prone
areas underlined the effectiveness of its
hurricane preparedness -- partly because
of its organization, partly because of the
communist government's firm control over
the lives of 11 million Cubans.
After 45 years of Castro rule, Cubans understand
that the government has the last word. When
state agents came, most people did not question
the orders to evacuate, to open and staff
shelters and ensure that displaced families
were accounted for and fed.
What if the people don't want to leave
their homes? a reporter asked a resident
of Artemisa, just outside of Havana. She
laughed. ''They have no choice,'' she said.
The Cuban government's first line of defense
against hurricanes is the media, totally
controlled by the state, from the three
TV stations to dozens of radio stations
and newspapers.
From the day that Ivan began pointing its
eye toward Cuba, TV broadcast nonstop shows
on the hurricane. Civil-defense officials
announced preparations and meteorologists
gave hurricane instruction every night before
a classroom-like studio audience.
The result was that Cubans began stocking
up on emergency supplies early and taking
other precautions.
In all, the government moved 1.89 million
people -- 17 percent of its citizens --
out of harm's way.
As civil defense officials announced evacuations,
members of neighborhood watch groups went
door to door making sure everyone knew.
Then came the police, making sure everyone
obeyed.
All along, civil defense officials and
volunteers kept detailed lists of residents,
those who were in shelters and those in
neighbors' homes.
''We are well organized,'' said a civil
defense representative at a shelter in Guanajay
just outside Havana.
''We got very lucky,'' Melardo Quintero,
54, said as he made some minor adjustments
on his thatched roof near the town of San
Juan y Martínez in Pinar del Río.
But Castro, who repeatedly compared his
government's preparations for Ivan to the
island's long-standing preparations for
a possible war with the United States, said
it was more than luck. ''We've been preparing
for this for 45 years,'' he told state television.
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