Cuba Emergency Response System

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[edit] Response to Hurricane Katrina

Three days after Hurricane Katrina, Fidel Castro offered more than 1,500 doctors and 36 tons of medicine and equipment to the Americans. American President George W. Bush ignored the offer until ten days later, and then refused help from Cuba.

[edit] Hurricane Dennis and Hurricane Ivan

Last July, Cuba weathered Hurricane Dennis and in September of last year Hurricane Ivan—two of the most powerful storms to strike the Caribbean in the last century. In the case of Dennis, just 16 people died amid massive damage to island, while Ivan claimed not a single victim. In both cases, Cuba succeeded in evacuating more than 1.5 million people, emptying out entire flood-prone coastal areas. People were provided buses to pre-arranged shelters staffed with medical personnel and stocked with food and water, as well as to private homes that took in the evacuees.

[edit] Cuba's Emergency System

Cuba boasts of an extensive and well-organized civil defense system, free public health care and an extensive education program in relation to hurricanes, all of which—as Katrina made so painfully clear on the Gulf Coast—are lacking in the US. In a lame attempt at irony, White House press spokesman Scott McClellan dodged a question about the administration’s response to the Cuban offer by declaring, “We would certainly hope that Castro would offer freedom to his people.”

It is hardly likely that many Cubans would like to experience the “freedom” offered to disaster victims of New Orleans, who were left free to die in the streets and who are now being forcibly evicted from their homes and relocated to shelters that have all the characteristics of detention camps.

Cuba, an impoverished island nation that has been subjected to a 45-year economic blockade by successive US governments, stands in stark contrast to the US when it comes to disaster prevention and relief. While officials in Washington are continuing the refrain that no one could have foreseen the hurricane and suggesting that those left in New Orleans and other disaster areas are responsible for their own deaths, the Cuban authorities have proven in practice that such tragedies are avoidable.

Cuba is the largest and most populated island in the Caribbean yet is consistently experiences the lowest death tolls during hurricane season. According to United Nations, it's not because Cubans are lucky but because they're prepared.

Cuba has a world-class meteorological institute, with 15 provincial offices. They share data with US scientists and project storm tracks. Around 72 hours before a storm’s predicted landfall, national media issue alerts while civil protection committees check evacuation plans and shelters. Hurricane awareness is taught in schools and there are practice drills for the public before each hurricane season. Most adults are reasonably well educated, so they understand what officials and forecasters tell them.

State run television and the civil defense authority bombard the population with information and instructions about what measures to take. On every block, there's a person assigned to take a census on who is being evacuated to which shelter, with special attention paid to the elderly and pregnant women.

"We have a list, and tell each person where they have to go and there, they're taken care of," says Llance Perez. Leading up to 1994’s Hurricane Ivan, 2 million Cubans were safely evacuated and no one was killed as a direct or indirect result of the hurricane. The police and army were deployed in advance and were responsible for guaranteeing there was no looting. Electricity is cut ahead of the hurricane to prevent electrocutions. After Hurricane Ivan, the seaside village of Las Canas looked like a ghost town. Its residents evacuated days earlier. But while many lost much of their belongings, at least no one had to cry over the loss of a loved one. In the US, Fifty-six deaths resulted from Hurricane Ivan. In 2004, Hurricane Charlie, category 5 when it hit Cuba, and category 4 when it hit Florida: 10 killed in Cuba, 30 killed in the US. Denouncing the Bush administration’s failure to provide emergency relief to the people of New Orleans, much less evacuate the city before the hurricane struck, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez said, “How many children died there that could have been evacuated by land, by air, by water? Not one helicopter was moved before the hurricane came. Not one public use vehicle was moved. No bus nor military truck. Nothing. And Mr. Bush is on vacation in Crawford, on his horse.” As Venezuela began shipping fuel and money to the US, Washington’s Federal Emergency Management Agency carried a notice on its web site urging that donations be sent to a number of charities, most of them religious. Featured prominently among them is “Operation Blessing,” a front for the extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalist politician and broadcaster Pat Robertson. Just a week before the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast, Robertson called publicly for the assassination of Venezuela’s president, Chávez, an incitement to terrorism that Washington has refused to condemn.

Just before Hurricane Ivan, 2 million Cubans were safely evacuated and no one was killed as a direct or indirect result of the hurricane. The police and army were deployed in advance and were responsible for guaranteeing there was no looting. Electricity is cut ahead of the hurricane to prevent electrocutions. After Hurricane Ivan, many people lost their belongings, but no one died. In America, 56 deaths resulted from Hurricane Ivan. During Hurricane Charley, 10 people were killed in Cuba, but 30 people died in America, where the storm was weaker.