...after hurricane Ivan. Category 5 Ivan killed 52 people in the United States, and barreled headlong into Cuba, but Cubans evacuated 1.9 million people (15 percent of the entire population) and another 1.9 million farm animals to homes opened by others and to 2500 well-stocked evacuation shelters in advance of the storm. There were NO deaths. Zero. Note too that hurricane evacuations are not mandatory in Cuba as many think-- people simply work together to get everyone to safe ground.
This is an amazing article:
http://www.medicc.org/medicc_review/1004/pages/top_story.htmlForemost is the political will of the Cuban government to prioritize disaster preparedness and work together with citizens to design and implement a comprehensive risk reduction program. This includes emergency plans for the national, provincial, municipal and local levels, updated annually. Shaping and implementing these plans falls largely to a net work of Civil Defense units which divide disaster preparedness into four specific phases: informative, alert, alarm and recovery.
The commitment to saving human lives is first priority in the Cuban strategy. Primarily, this is achieved through education from an early age about the dangers associated with hurricanes and how to prepare and act in the event of one; a reliable early warning system that disseminates information leading up to a hurricane, but also during and after; and early evacuation. This last is critical, as hazard assessment specialists point to the refusal to evacuate as a major cause of death in hurricane situations. Indeed, refusal to evacuate partly explains why Florida suffered more loss of life than Cuba in recent hurricanes, including Charley, when four people died in Cuba, while 27 perished in Florida. According to Oxfam America's exhaustive report entitled Weathering the Storm: Lessons in Risk Reduction in Cuba, " Cuba's success in saving lives through timely evacuation when a hurricane strikes is a model of effective, government-driven disaster preparedness."
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Another pivotal aspect of the Cuban program is guaranteeing the health of the population during and after a hurricane. From securing the supply of potable water to accelerating garbage pick-up so as to prevent infestation, decades of extreme weather events in Cuba have honed the strategy. During Ivan, for example, 2,000 medical and sanitation teams were posted in the areas of greatest risk, in case a rapid hygiene and health response was needed, diesel generators were installed at pumping stations to guarantee drinking water, plus chlorine supplies were laid in to permit water purification. Furthermore, whenever evacuations are called for, the sick, elderly and pregnant women are given priority and doctors and nurses go with them to provide on-site medical attention.
Other steps that are de rigueur in Cuban hurricane preparedness include detailed instructions in print and broadcast media on how to secure your home and the safest place to be during a hurricane; accelerated harvesting to ensure foodstuffs; safeguarding and securing schools, clinics and hospitals; the preparation of short-cycle crops to be planted during the recovery phase; and clearing trees near telephone and electrical wires. In addition, when winds reach a certain velocity, the electric company simply cuts the power – saving countless lives that otherwise might be lost to electrocution. The solidarity of friends, family and neighbors to provide shelter for others, help hurricane-proof homes, feed the hungry and do whatever it takes to recover once a hurricane has blown through, is unshakable and another potent ingredient in Cuba's successful formula.
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