United States offers disaster aid to Cuba
Big News Network.com Tuesday 9th September, 2008
The United States has again offered to send disaster aid to Cuba after
the island was hit twice by Hurricane Ike.
The State Department said it had decided to renew its aid offer, even
though Cuba had declined to allow a US team to assess the damage from
Hurricane Gustav last week.
In the meantime, the US has distributed US$100,000 in disaster aid to
non-government relief groups working with Cuba.
Hurricane Ike has toppled buildings in Havana and ravvaged western Cuba,
which is still recovering from the more powerful Gustav, as it made a
second landfall on the island.
Heavy rains and high winds pounded the Cuban capital as Ike, with 120
kilometre per hour winds, passed nearby through the westernmost Pinar
del Rio province.
Havana, the capital city of 2 million people on Cuba's north-west coast,
has seen the collapse of about sixteen buildings in the heavy weather,
but no injuries have been reported.
With Hurricane Ike now steaming into the Gulf of Mexico, Texas emergency
officials have readied themselves to order the evacuation of one million
people from the Rio Grande Valley.
Emergency planning officials have been deciding whether to announce a
mandatory evacuation for coastal counties close to the Mexican border.
With forecasts showing Ike blowing ashore this weekend, authorities are
readying nearly 1,000 buses in case they are needed to move out the many
poor and elderly people in the area, who are without transport.
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