Cuba calls for disaster relief

Cuba calls for disaster relief

HAVANA - Cuba has called on the United Nations for help to recover from the savage winter storm that hit the western and central provinces over the March 13-14 weekend. The storm caused unprecedented flooding. Five people died in the disaster, and preliminary estimates put material losses at over US$1 billion.

According to a UN Development Program report, the storm damaged 40,000 homes and ripped roofs from thousands of industrial and service centres in eight of Cuba's 14 provinces. Vital food crops such as bananas were severely hit.

Cuba is asking for UN help with food supplies, medicines, fertilisers and herbicides, according to Ernesto Melendez, president of the island's State Committee for Economic Cooperation. He says Cuba's economic crunch, already aggravated by the US blockade, has now been compounded by the storm.

The head of the UNDP in Cuba, Joachim Von Braunmuhl, says it's "the responsibility of the civilised world" to help the island recover from the hurricane. He noted that the magnitude of the disaster presents a challenge beyond Cuba's capabilities, and hence the country "should not have to go it alone".

[Radio Havana/Pegasus.]

From GLW issue 94