Storm-hit Cuba to face exodus

Storm-hit Cuba to face exodus
Article from: Herald Sun
September 12, 2008 12:00am

HURRICANES Ike and Gustav have plunged Cuba into what has been called
the worst economic disaster in its history.

And experts say conditions could be bad enough to spark a new exodus.

The Red Cross's early estimate of total damage on the island is $US3
billion to $4 billion.

Economists and Cuba watchers say the island may never fully recover, and
even a partial reconstruction will take years.

Surrounded by misery, Cubans could become more politically active or
abandon the country altogether, experts say.

"We will see more emigration," said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the
Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami.

Gustav and Ike created havoc in every sector of the economy. Housing
sustained extensive damage.

In the town of Herradura, in the western province of Pinar del Rio, all
600 homes collapsed.

Several important structures, such as the eastern sugar mills of
Chaparra and Delicia and the hospital Heroes de Baire on the Isle of
Youth, off Cuba's south-west coast, were severely damaged.

Many crops were decimated and food warehouses were destroyed.

Hundreds of high-tension electrical towers and power lines were down and
the water supply network has been affected, raising the possibility of
disease.

Guarione Diaz, president of the Cuban American National Council, said
while it was probably the worst economic disaster Cuba had suffered, it
would takes months - if it was in fact possible - to measure the extent
of the losses.

"It is impossible to quantify the real damage. There is no system of
costs in Cuba," he said.

"One can get rough estimates of crop production and compare.

"Perhaps tobacco is the easiest to quantify. But the social cost, the
losses in housing and the cost of rebuilding, cannot be calculated."

But he said: "It is evident that hundreds of thousands are homeless and
that losses are in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

Hurricane Ike yesterday became a category two storm in the Gulf of
Mexico, and was heading towards the southern US coast.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24331372-5012753,00.html