Cuba evacuates tourists, assists residents
At least 11 dead as rain causes floods, slides in Haiti
By Ruth Morris
Havana Bureau
October 20, 2005
HAVANA · Cuban authorities began evacuating tourists along white-sand
beaches east of Havana on Wednesday and mobilized thousands of soldiers to
help residents hunker down as Hurricane Wilma gathered force.
By nightfall Wednesday, Cuban authorities had upgraded storm warnings to
maximum alerts in the western provinces of Pinar del Río and Havana, as well
as for the capital city of Havana and the Isle of Youth to the south.
Thousands of state troops were dispatched to help evacuate residents in
precarious homes and low-lying areas and to transport livestock to safety.
While meteorologists did not expect the island to take a direct hit, they
warned the mammoth storm would drop sheets of rain. Even moderate but
sustained rains translate into a threat for Havana's historic center, where
elaborate colonial-era structures are neglected in a cash-starved economy.
With heavy downpours on the island's eastern tip, the Cuban government
announced it had evacuated 9,000 residents in and around Santiago de Cuba.
There were no reports of storm-related deaths, although unrelenting rains
damaged about 200 houses.
From Havana, the country's Civil Defense corps asked residents to stay
inside once the storm hits.
"We advise [residents] not to touch fallen cables, not to cross rivers or
rising washes, nor bridges that risk collapse," the government said in a
communique.
On its way to Cuba, Wilma dropped heavy rain on the Cayman Islands, forcing
schools and businesses to close and causing flooding of some roads. Winds
brought heavy waves to the south and west coasts of south Cayman Island,
according to Dominic Tonner, deputy editor of the Cayman Observer.
The Ministry of Education announced that all government and private schools
on Grand Cayman would remain closed today. Schools on Cayman Brac, however,
will resume today.
Many businesses, including the Cayman Observer, were beginning to reopen
Wednesday afternoon, Tonner said.
As the storm churned toward Mexico's Cancun resort, tourists packed the
airport and MTV postponed its Video Music Awards Latin America ceremony,
originally scheduled for Thursday at a seaside park south of the resort
town, the Associated Press reported.
Heavy rain from Wilma's outer bands also forced evacuations in Honduras,
Jamaica and Haiti -- even as much of Central America and southern Mexico was
still recovering from Hurricane Stan, which left more than 1,500 people dead
or missing.
The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste, said
Wilma's rains caused floods and landslides that killed at least 11 people
since Monday. At least 2,000 families were forced from flooded homes.
Jean-Baptiste later said she received unconfirmed reports that two more
people drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its
banks in the southern town of Les Anglais.
Jamaica, where heavy rain has fallen since Sunday, closed almost all
schools, and 350 people were living in shelters. One man died Sunday in a
rain-swollen river.
A military helicopter plucked 19 people from rooftops Tuesday in St.
Catherine parish, where some areas were flooded with up to 7 feet of water,
said Barbara Carby, head of Jamaica's emergency management office.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson ordered the military to make emergency food
shipments to stranded residents.
The storm was expected to dump up to 25 inches of rain in mountainous areas
of Cuba, and up to 15 inches in the Caymans and Jamaica. Up to 12 inches
could fall from Honduras to the Yucatan Peninsula, the U.S. weather service
said.
Staff Writers Doreen Hemlock, J.C. Summerford and, Rick Stone contributed to
this report, which was supplemented with information from The Associated
Press..
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-ccuba20oct20,0,1246606.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean
At least 11 dead as rain causes floods, slides in Haiti
By Ruth Morris
Havana Bureau
October 20, 2005
HAVANA · Cuban authorities began evacuating tourists along white-sand
beaches east of Havana on Wednesday and mobilized thousands of soldiers to
help residents hunker down as Hurricane Wilma gathered force.
By nightfall Wednesday, Cuban authorities had upgraded storm warnings to
maximum alerts in the western provinces of Pinar del Río and Havana, as well
as for the capital city of Havana and the Isle of Youth to the south.
Thousands of state troops were dispatched to help evacuate residents in
precarious homes and low-lying areas and to transport livestock to safety.
While meteorologists did not expect the island to take a direct hit, they
warned the mammoth storm would drop sheets of rain. Even moderate but
sustained rains translate into a threat for Havana's historic center, where
elaborate colonial-era structures are neglected in a cash-starved economy.
With heavy downpours on the island's eastern tip, the Cuban government
announced it had evacuated 9,000 residents in and around Santiago de Cuba.
There were no reports of storm-related deaths, although unrelenting rains
damaged about 200 houses.
From Havana, the country's Civil Defense corps asked residents to stay
inside once the storm hits.
"We advise [residents] not to touch fallen cables, not to cross rivers or
rising washes, nor bridges that risk collapse," the government said in a
communique.
On its way to Cuba, Wilma dropped heavy rain on the Cayman Islands, forcing
schools and businesses to close and causing flooding of some roads. Winds
brought heavy waves to the south and west coasts of south Cayman Island,
according to Dominic Tonner, deputy editor of the Cayman Observer.
The Ministry of Education announced that all government and private schools
on Grand Cayman would remain closed today. Schools on Cayman Brac, however,
will resume today.
Many businesses, including the Cayman Observer, were beginning to reopen
Wednesday afternoon, Tonner said.
As the storm churned toward Mexico's Cancun resort, tourists packed the
airport and MTV postponed its Video Music Awards Latin America ceremony,
originally scheduled for Thursday at a seaside park south of the resort
town, the Associated Press reported.
Heavy rain from Wilma's outer bands also forced evacuations in Honduras,
Jamaica and Haiti -- even as much of Central America and southern Mexico was
still recovering from Hurricane Stan, which left more than 1,500 people dead
or missing.
The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste, said
Wilma's rains caused floods and landslides that killed at least 11 people
since Monday. At least 2,000 families were forced from flooded homes.
Jean-Baptiste later said she received unconfirmed reports that two more
people drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its
banks in the southern town of Les Anglais.
Jamaica, where heavy rain has fallen since Sunday, closed almost all
schools, and 350 people were living in shelters. One man died Sunday in a
rain-swollen river.
A military helicopter plucked 19 people from rooftops Tuesday in St.
Catherine parish, where some areas were flooded with up to 7 feet of water,
said Barbara Carby, head of Jamaica's emergency management office.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson ordered the military to make emergency food
shipments to stranded residents.
The storm was expected to dump up to 25 inches of rain in mountainous areas
of Cuba, and up to 15 inches in the Caymans and Jamaica. Up to 12 inches
could fall from Honduras to the Yucatan Peninsula, the U.S. weather service
said.
Staff Writers Doreen Hemlock, J.C. Summerford and, Rick Stone contributed to
this report, which was supplemented with information from The Associated
Press..
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-ccuba20oct20,0,1246606.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean
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