Damage+from+Hurricane+Dennis+in+Cuba

• President Fidel Castro announces in TV Roundtable • Number of deaths up to 16 • Serious damage to 120,000 homes • Intensive work underway to restore electricity, gas and water services
 * Damage from Dennis at $1.4 billion****

BY JOAQUIN ORAMAS

PRESIDENT Fidel Castro highlighted the economic damage wrought by Hurricane Dennis throughout the Cuban archipelago, which stands at approximately $1.4 billion.

In a televised appearance, the Cuban leader stated that if it had passed directly over the capital that total would have increased to $3 billion.

He reported that some 1,531,000 people were evacuated throughout the country; 245,106 went into hostels and the rest stayed with relatives.

Fidel affirmed that 16 people died during the passing of the hurricane: 13 in Granma province, two in Santiago de Cuba and one in Sanctí Spíritus.

A total of 120,000 homes were heavily damaged, 15,000 were totally destroyed, 25,000 partially destroyed; 24,000 roofs were completely wrecked and 60,000 partially destroyed.

In the agricultural sector, citrus plantations in the Jagüey Grande area were affected and animals killed, including 73,000 poultry fowl.

It was also announced that 1,025 electricity posts were felled and 21 municipalities were left without power. The Cienfuegos plant was functioning at 5% of its generating capacity and that in Matanzas at 15%.

Due to the lack of electricity 2.5 million people are lacking a direct water supply.

In terms of hotels damaged by the passing of Dennis, the total stands at 21.

Fidel announced that plans for improving the situation of the population include an additional investment of $400 million for foodstuffs.

He praised the support of Venezuela, which has dispatched a boat – due to arrive next Sunday – with electricity towers, electricity materials and fuel, among other resources for the island’s recuperation, and recalled that our country was the first to send aid to the sister people of Jamaica in the present circumstances.

Misael Enamorado, first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, detailed the difficult conditions in the province in the wake of Dennis, which brought down 98 electricity circuits, 24 of which have been repaired.

The Cuban president expressed his confidence in the people overcoming all the difficulties that nature puts in their way.


 * CUBA WILL NOT ACCEPT HUMANITARIAN AID FROM THE US OR EUROPE**

Cuba will not accept humanitarian aid from the United States given the criminal blockade it has imposed, nor from any of the European governments that have withdrawn their aid under the pretext of human rights’ violations resulting from the condemnation of the island by mercenary elements in the service of the US government.

President Fidel Castro made that statement during the Informative Roundtable transmitted on Cuban radio and television to assess the damaged occasioned by Hurricane Dennis throughout 11 of the country’s provinces.

The leader of the Cuban Revolution affirmed that genuine humanitarian aid is what Cuba is undertaking in terms of medical attention to citizens of other countries; for example, by facilitating cataract operations for thousands of Venezuelans, among other treatments.

Reflecting on the damage caused by the cyclone he emphasized the importance of developing an energy culture among the people, to intensify the saving of energy to avoid elevated fuel costs, as well as wasting water, which likewise leads to unnecessary costs. During the Roundtable, the first secretaries of the Party in the provinces of Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Habana and City of Havana offered ample information on the measures being adopted to restore electricity, gas and water supplies affected by the passing of the hurricane, whose maximum 250-km winds lashed the south of the island after entering east of Santiago de Cuba, whipping the Jardines and Jardinillos de la Reina and the south of Camagüey province, seriously affecting the capital and the historic city of Trinidad, close to where it penetrated the central provinces in a diagonal trajectory that also affected the territories of Santa Clara, Matanzas, Habana province, before leaving land at Guanabo, 30 kilometers from the capital of the island.

At the same time, via telephone, the first secretaries of the Party in Sanctí Spíritus, Granma and Santiago de Cuba announced the damage inflicted by the hurricane, which affected close to eight million people. They detailed the installation of emergency electricity sources in hospitals, water supplies and other essential aspects of the restoration of public services.

End