Cuban evacuations face little resistance

Cuban evacuations face little resistance
U.N. has praised country's civil defense plan

LA COLOMA, Cuba (AP) -- Hurricane Wilma was expected to drench western
Cuba, but the disposition of residents in this southwestern coastal
fishing village was sunny and warm Thursday, as they packed their
belongings and moved to higher ground.

The communist government prides itself on saving lives during frequent
hurricanes that belt or zip by the island, and its civil defense plans
have been praised by the United Nations as a model for other nations.
Mandatory, widespread evacuations are common and face little resistance
from Cubans accustomed to leaving their homes when the government orders.

In La Coloma buses began lining the streets at 7 a.m. Thursday,
signaling residents to pack their bags. Civil defense officials said by
midday Thursday more than 220,000 people across the island had been
evacuated, most in the island's west closer to the storm.

Windows were boarded up in this fishing community and valuables such as
refrigerators and televisions sets were moved from sea-level homes to
higher floors or nearby apartments.

Neighbors chatted, laughing as men wearing shorts and rubber boots
struggled to transport pigs from their pens to somewhere indoors. They
played down the possible harm Wilma could cause to the island and made a
point of praising the government.

"The revolution takes care of us," said Dora Millar, holding her
three-month old grandson on her hip. "The sea always penetrates a bit,
there'll be some problems with the house, but there's a solution for
everything."

"We're a little bit afraid but also have faith that things will turn out
OK," she added.

Residents began filling up the buses, young children and pet dogs in
tow. They were to be transported to shelters set up at schools or to the
homes of friends or family members in towns farther from the ocean.

"It'll only be two or three days," said Antonio Cordero, a 54-year-old
fisherman. "We could go to a relative's home, but at the shelter there
is medical attention for the children. There's food.

"And more people to converse with," he added with a smile.

It was a similar scene Thursday afternoon to the east, in the southern
coastal town of Surgidero de Batabano, a low-lying community frequently
flooded by hurricanes moving toward the island from the south. Under a
gray sky and intermittent rains, residents began locking up their homes
and boarding government buses.

"I'm calm because I'm gong to the home a relative in a town nearby that
doesn't flood," said Mariela Reloba, who got on a bus with her
four-month-old baby girl and grandmother. "I'm not worried about the
hurricane but I am worried if we are left without a house."

All 5,125 residents of Surgidero de Batabano were being evacuated
Thursday, said Hedilberto Lugo, a local civil defense official.

"We don't want any deaths," a man said over a loudspeaker from a
government car circulating through the town. "Preserving lives is the
objective and the obligation."

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http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/10/20/cuba.hurricane.ap/index.html