By: Diana Barahona - HaitiAnalysis

In a very short period of time Cuba has suffered the impact of four cyclonic storms: Fay, which struck Cuba on August 18; Gustav, a near-category 5 hurricane which tore through the western provinces on August 30; Hannah, which caused flooding in eastern Cuba as it devastated Haiti on September 1; and Ike, which hit Cuba as a category 3 hurricane on September 7.

Gustav slammed into Isla de la Juventud with winds of 150mph — the most devastating storm in 50 years. Roads were washed away and homes, food and crops were destroyed amidst heavy flooding.

The country was still assessing the damages from Gustav when hurricane Ike made landfall eight days later with 120-mph winds on the northern coast of Holguin Province in eastern Cuba. The category 3 hurricane and slowed to a category 2 as it moved over the center of the island with 100-mph winds and torrential rains destroying buildings, toppling electrical towers, tearing out trees and leveling sugarcane. It passed just south of Havana as it crossed the length of the island, hitting the in the still-flooded Pinar del Rio province in the west on September 9.

Cuban state television reported some 2.6 million people were evacuated. Although there were no deaths from Gustav it damaged 140,000 buildings in western Cuba — 90,000 of them homes. Hurricane Ike claimed only seven lives, testimony to the government's internationally recognized storm-preparedness, which was in full swing as medical teams, food and potable water were mobilized, fuel and power generators prepared and homes secured across the country.

Damages of $5 billion

In spite of the minimal loss of life, the economic damages are formidable, estimated to be around US$5 billion. Approximately 444,000 homes were damaged with more than 63,250 totally destroyed according to the National Housing Institute. In addition to homes, there was damage to schools, health facilities, cultural facilites and industrial buildings and warehouses. Communications and energy infrastructure were also affected.

The island’s agricultural sector was heavily impacted. According to different sources, 5.840 tons of warehoused food and half-a-million chickens and other poultry were lost. There was extensive damage to sugar and diversified crops, with 32.000 hectares of plantain lost, plus more than 10.000 hectares of other crops such as rice, beans and organic vegetables. All coffee growing areas in the eastern provinces were affected, with a total loss of the harvest in the most productive areas. Many covered growing houses and 200 greenhouses were damaged or destroyed. Cubans have organized volunteer brigades to go out into the fields to try to recover some of the crops before they rotted and the Ministry of Agriculture and Sugar announced an 85-measure package on September 18 to boost the recovery of both sectors. The already-extensive network of urban and periurban farms may have ameliorated potential food shortages by increasing overall production, by spreading production over a greater geographical area and by reducing the problem of transportation as production is localized in the same area as consumption.

Worldwide aid immediate At a September 18 press conference (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43930), Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the most pressing needs were for food and housing assistance and materials to restore electricity. He reported that 23 countries had offered assistance. Russia was in the lead, sending construction materials and tents and 14.7 tons of food. Ecuador sent nine tons of canned tuna through the World Food Program and Venezuela shipped 6.600 of food to Haiti and Cuba. The Venezuelan government is also sending construction brigades and said the donation drive would continue as long as necessary. Spain responded with a flight of aid worth $400,000 and offers of future assistance. Among nonprofits, Oxfam had already raised $200,000 and the UN had so far mobilized 3.5 million dollars in aid, according to IPS. Poor countries responded as well, with Vietnam sending $200,000 worth of rice and $120,000, East Timor donating $500,000, Trinidad and Tobago pledging $1 million and Tanzania pledging $100,000. In addition, many people-to-people offers of aid have been received. The Bush administration initially offered $100,000 on condition that Cuba accept an “assessment team.” Later it offered $5 million, which Cuba rejected as it twice repeated its request that the United States suspend the blockade to allow the country to purchase construction materials on credit.

Cubans make the connection to global warming

Global warming causes increased oceanic temperatures, which increases the intensity of tropical storms. Other current effects are changes in rainfall, causing drought in some areas. Cuba has been concerned about global warming for many years: in 1992 Fidel Castro warned at the UN Conference on the Environment and Development that “An important biological species is at risk of disappearing due to the rapid and progressive elimination of its natural habitat: man. … If we want to save humanity from that self-destruction, there must be a better distribution of the available wealth and technologies on the plantet. There must be less luxury and less squandering in a few countries so that there will be less impoverishment and less famine in a large portion of the Earth.” On Sept. 24, 2007, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque commented that in the 15 years since that conference almost nothing was done (http://embacuba.cubaminrex.cu/Default.aspx?tabid=6165): “The situation is now a lot more critical, the dangers are greater and we are running out of time.“The scientific evidence is clear. Practical observation is overwhelming. These could only be called into question by irresponsible people. The last ten years have been the warmest. There is a decrease in the thickness of artic ice. Glaciers are receding. Sea level is on the rise. Also increasing is the frequency and intensity of hurricanes.

“The future looks worse: some 30% of all species will disappear if global temperature increases by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees centigrade. Small island states are running the risk of disappearing under the waters.”

According to economist Minqi Li, the world may be already committed to a 2˚C warming relative to pre-industrial times, which is widely considered to be a critical threshold in climate change. (http://www.monthlyreview.org/080721li.php) What this means is that far from being alarmist, Cuban officials have been honest about the gravity of the situation.

Cuban scientists monitoring the situation

The Cuban Institute of Meteorolgy has experts working with climate scientists internationally in the sharing of information. But as a very low emitter of greenhouse gases, the most Cuba can do is to implement measures to try to protect the population from its immediate effects. These measures fall into two categories: those that protect the population from increasingly strong storms, and those that guarantee access to essentials such as food and water. In his speech of July 26, 2007, Raul Castro warned of the triple dangers to Cuba of environmental degradation, the energy crisis and the food crisis:(http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2007/07/27/nacional/artic01.html):

“I am not exaggerating when I say that we face a very trying international economic situation, where, in addition to wars, lack of political stability, the deterioration of the environment and the rise in oil prices—apparently an irreversible trend— we now face, like comrade Fidel has recently denounced, the decision made primarily by the United States, to transform corn, soy and other food products into fuel. This move is bound to make the price of these products, and those directly dependent upon these such as meats and milk prices, climb dramatically as it has been the case in recent months.”

Castro then went into great detail about measures taken to increase food self-sufficiency and reduce the use of fuel by eliminating unnecessary transportation of food.In this year’s July 26 speech (http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/07/27/nacional/artic22.html) Castro spent a good deal of time talking about water, reporting on the ongoing expansion and repair of aquiducts, the laying of water networks and the modernization of a water purification plant. He reported on the building of nationwide water transfer systems to move water from one province to another and said the government was moving as quickly as possible to finish these projects. Without a doubt, the government expected the hurricane season to be a dangerous one and was working against time to prepare the country’s infrastructure.The projects were not yet completed when the two hurricanes struck; however, the following damage report published in Granma on September 16 gives an indication of how the reservoirs function:

“With respect to the volume of accumulated water in the country’s 239 reservoirs managed by the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, at the close of September 12, it was in excess of 7,892,005 million cubic meters, 86% of the total of usable capacity retained, which signifies an increase of 1,791 million of cubic meters with respect to Friday, September 5.

“Currently, 128 reservoirs are releasing water into drainage channels, 94 more than before Ike’s passing.

When the new water transfer system is in place, it is hoped that less water will have to be released and that it can instead be transferred to reservoirs that have more capacity.

A plea from Cuba’s artists and intellectuals

A consciousness of the crisis of global warming is evident not only among public officials but among artists and intellectuals. On Sept. 3, 2008, days before the automobile accident that took her life, essayist Celia Hart wrote the following (http://links.org.au/node/622/5327):

“We should be used by now to seeing our scorching Caribbean summers ended by enemies attacking us by air and sea, as if they were intent on training us for other contingencies. However typical they are of this region, hurricanes are now growing in size and number as a result of human disdain toward nature’s balance. The unbridled luxuries of the rich of the world; their deadly obsession with putting in their pockets something that their poor souls are incapable of enjoying, condemns us to struggle with these new enemies that appear in the summer threatening – for a change – the fragile islands of the Caribbean with all of their dispossessed.”

After expressing her pride in the way Cubans responded during the emergency, with solidarity in evidence everywhere, Celia Hart adds this note: “Eventually, we’ll build the houses, schools, churches and pylons the hurricane victims need, but what about next August? Capitalism kills nature while we’re left to breathe worse, starve to death and suffer from the ravages of their squandering. The world is not working and in the face of that only a socialist society has alternatives.”