Storm Reports

Surveying damage in the Bahamas

The Miami Herald's Trenton Daniel reports from the Bahamas:

MATTHEW TOWN, Bahamas

When Bahamasair flight 422 flew just over the southeastern island of Great Inagua Monday afternoon, the pilot offered commentary on the scene below.

"This is not a pretty sight," the pilot radioed in.

The flight attendant weighed in with her own understatement.

"We do wish we could welcome you under more pleasant circumstance," she said over the radio.

The bird's eye view: Dozens of homes damaged, roofless, destroyed, telephone poles toppled, trees uprooted.

Authorities say nobody died when Hurricane Ike chewed up this island of 1,000 people. No other deaths were reported in the other islands. Damage was assessed to be not very extensive by government officials.

Upon landing at the airport in Matthew Town, about a hundred islanders lined up at the edge of the airport property, the boundary a sagging chain-linked fence. Shingles from the roof of the terminal, a one-room building, were ripped off, waiting chairs sprung from their hinges.

"Everything is flattened, total disaster, that's putting it mildly," Louis Farquharson, 50, said as he was about to board a Nassau-bound flight to join family on one of the northern islands. With no electricity on the island, he wanted to leave so he could wire money to his daughter, a scholarship college student in Nova Scotia.

But for all the steeple-less churches, foundation-less homes, and toppled coconut trees in Matthew Town, a mood that could be described not as despair or resignation but as acceptance strangely prevailed over this ruined island. Islanders relied on a sense of gallows humor.

"Tell Ike that Tina wasn't here  I guess that's why he was so upset," Nicholas Lindo, 39, a fisherman said about the celebrity couple known for their domestic battles.

One newly rendered homeless man noted how trees on the ground served one useful purpose.

"It's easy to eat coconuts," Vincent Cartwright, 66, said as he snacked on the fruit. We got it bad here  we're all mashed up."

Volunteers from the Red Cross were also on the plane. One volunteer said the agency was bringing a small supply of food, water, and hygiene kits.

It was not clear when or how the Red Cross distributed such supplies Monday afternoon.

Partying Key West style

Key West knows how to put smiles on people's faces, even when bad weather is imminent.

An old skinny man wearing a Santa hat rode down Duval Street on a bicycle. He was following "Ike's War Wagon,'' a white jeep filled with men throwing Mardi Gras Beads.

"Come to 801 for the pot luck dinner,'' one man hollered to throng of media gathered for an Ike update from Keys' officials. "We'll feed you and then we'll entertain you.''

The men are drag queens who say the show must go on. "Come party with us,'' they repeated. "We'll make you forget about Ike.''

Fifteen minutes earlier, Monroe County administrator Roman Gastesi said that the Keys would be spared most of Ike's wrath.

"We're not expecting coastal flooding or a lot of rain; just expecting some wind,'' Gastesi said. "We just got lucky again. Thank God for that.''

While Tropical Storm Fay dumped between 6 and 8 inches of rain on Key West, Gastesi said that meteorologists are estimating the city will only get between 1 and 3 inches.

"The fat lady hasn't sung, but the chunky mayor will tomorrow,'' Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson said.

While Key West won't get a direct strike from Ike, Gastesi warned that the city will undergo some thunderstorm bands that also bring wind.

Keys' emergency management officials are urging all residents to stay put, wherever they are now, citing the roads won't be safe for travel.

As lifelong Conch Charles Mirth said: "Got to be like a gopher and go under cover.''

Once the storm has passed the Keys, which is expected to be midday Tuesday, then residents will be allowed to return, Monroe County Mayor Mario Di Gennaro said.

"We want our residents to return as soon as possible, and as soon as it's safe,'' Di Gennaro said.

It's likely to be sometime Wednesday. Di Gennaro said Visitors will be allowed to return to the Keys by Friday, and maybe a day sooner depending on cleanup efforts.

CAMMY CLARK, The Miami Herald

Widespread damage reported in Cuba

Translated from Cuban television by Renato Perez for the Miami Herald:

Chief Cuban meteorologist JosÎ Rubiera, says Ike won't strengthen as long as it continues to move along the southern coast of Cuba.

"Ike lost its eye as it crossed the island; it is perfectly circular,'' he said on the nightly news show "Mesa Redonda.''

It is down to Cat 1, with sustained winds at 130 kilomters per hour with gusts up to 200 kmh.

Forecast for tomorrow, if everything stays the same: Ike will move west along the southern coast of Matanzas, across the Gulf of Batabana, and cut across the island in a northerly direction, between Pinar del Rio province and Havana province.

Col. Jose Ernesto Betancourt, chief of Civil Defense: "We never before had a situation where a region is under a state of recovery and alarm, at the same time, for two separate hurricanes in eight days.''

He refers to Pinar del Rio and Isle of Youth, which had to drop its recovery work for Gustav to prepare for Ike.

Luis Torres, head of Civil Def in Guantanamo: Rain is diminishing, winds are dying down. We're assessing damage. 131,000 evacuees in the province. Telephone lines affected in Maisi, Baracoa and all other municipalities. Many problems in power lines. Baracoa badly hit. Santiago to Guantanamo power lines are down. Power is available only through generators.

"We've been greatly affected in Baracoa.''

Especially in private housing. 1,086 homes damaged; 346 totally destroyed. 30,000 evacuees in Baracoa. Trying to repair six bakeries that were damaged.

Airport is closed by debris; trying to clean it up tonight, hoping to open the airport tomorrow.

"This is terrifying"

       Melba Santana, of Central Delicias, a town of around 35,000 in Las Tunas province,
returned this morning at around 9 am from the home of a friend where she rode out hurricane
Ike to find her roof and all her material possessions gone, and the rapidly rising water
almost flooding her floor.

   "This has been huge. We had never seen a hurricane of such an intensity,'' she said.

  "This town has disappeared,'' Santana, 60, added during a telephone interview. "The majority of the homes were
wood with zinc roofs. But most of the roofs were over 60 years old. My house lost the
roof. I cannot live in it. It is very terrible to lose your home, knowing you won't get it
back.'"

   "Trees are blocking the roads. There are no roads. There is nothing.''

   Santana is married to jailed dissident Alfredo Batista. She said her husband knows
nothing of what happened to their home, or to her, their two children and a six-year-old
grandson.

   "He knows nothing. He must be worried. I will have to wait until Wednesday at around 1
pm, when they give him 20 minutes to talk on the phone, to tell him that he lost his
home.''   

   She said the situation is dire.

   "We have no food, no milk, no crackers, no bread. This is terrifying. We don't know
how we are going to survive. When my 6 year old grandson saw what had happened to our home
he started to scream. We had to give him a sedative and take him to a friend's home.''

   According to Santana, over 90% of the homes in Central Delicias are lost. Sturdier
buildings also lost roofs and suffered other damage, including bodegas, bakeries and even
the local clinic.

   In addition to the devastation, residents of Central Delicia must also worry about
flooding, because heavy rain continues to fall.

   "The reservoir is overflowing and so are the sewers, which were never repaired as they
should have been. We are afraid of an epidemic. The waters are already approaching the
floor of the homes. The water is almost at my doorstep.''

   Santana and her family rode the storm in the home of a friend. She left her own 8-room
home yesterday at around 5 pm with a bag containing some clothing and some essentials.
That is all she has left now.

   "All the rest we have lost.''

   When she returned this morning to survey the damage, both the electric and the
telephone lines were down, but her son Humberto, 18, managed to reconnect the phone line.
They cannot make phone calls, but they can receive them.

   "Right now I am cleaning up the debris. There is much to do before night falls. I hope
to manage to make two rooms habitable so that we can take shelter. Right now I am soaking
wet, standing here in the rain as I talk to you. ''

   "There is no hope.''

   "My heart is very heavy. The authorities who go around claiming to help have not
bothered to come and check on us. The situation of the Cuban people is such that I don't
know how we are going to survive.''

--LIZA GROSS, The Miami Herald

Battered Cuba awaits more from Ike

Miami Herald staff report from Havana:

  In Havana, it looks like people are finally starting to prepare for the storm, which tv
is forecasting will start arriving on the western end of the island tonight. It´s not too tense, but there´s definitely a sense of anticipation in the air. Lots of
homes had their TV sets tuned to the news, and there were more than the usual number of
police on corners and in neighborhoods.

   At hotels, housekeepers taped up the windows in all the rooms, and they closed the pool. crews
brought in lounge chairs.

Along el Malecon and Old Havana, people were boarding up  windows on homes and shops. Crews were trucking away large potted plants from in front of  the hotels, and though the waves were crashing over the wall, there was no flooding.

There  were also long lines at the gasoline stations.

The civil defense for Havana has begun to warn residents in flood planes and those living
near the ocean to prepare for Ike. but so far no evacuations.

   People are on alert that Ike may regain strength as it grinds westward along the
island. They said 13,000 tourists were evacuated from Varadero.

Radio Cuba said antennas were lowered for Canal Havana, and they turned off transmitters
for the "educational channels.´´  On TV, they showed some pretty bad flooding and damage in the eastern provinces of
Holguin and Las Tunas. There were huge antenna towers broken in half in Holguin and fallen
trees littering streets.

Tolls reinstated

   With most of South Florida avoiding the worst of Hurricane Ike, state highway
administrators are reinstating tolls on most expressways.

   Starting at 7 p.m. tonight, toll collection will resume on

   -- the northbound Florida's Turnpike between State Road 836/The Dolphin Expressway in
Miami-Dade and the Boyton Beach Boulevard interchange in Palm Beach County, and

   -- Alligator Alley, in both directions, between Broward and Collier counties.

   After 7 p.m. Monday, the only tolls that remain suspended are on the northbound
turnpike in Miami-Dade between Florida City and the Southwest Eighth Street/Tamiami Trail
interchange at Milepost 25.

   

   --LARRY LEBOWITZ, Miami Herald Staff

Helping hurricane victims

• The American Red Cross takes donations in cash and supplies, all of which can be arranged at redcross.org. Mail donations should go to American Red Cross, Box 4002018, Des Moines, IA 50340-2018. The organization cautions that in-kind donations such as food and clothing are sometimes not worth the cost of transporting, so cash is more appropriate.

• Feed the Children is an international nonprofit agency that aids those affected by natural and human-created disasters. Donations can be made through feedthechildren.org. Various amounts buy specific quantities of supplies, from $17.50 for 125 pounds of supplies, to $7,200 for a truckload. The mailing address is: Feed The Children, P.O. Box 36, Oklahoma City, OK 73101-0036.

• Food For The Poor is accepting donations in cash and supplies through foodforthepoor.org. Regular mail donations should go to Food For The Poor, 6401 Lyons Rd. Dept. 9662, Coconut Creek, FL 33073. The nonprofit has started sending drinking water, hygiene kits and blankets to affected Caribbean areas.

• The United Way of Miami-Dade and The Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald have activated Operation Helping Hands to help storm victims. Log on to www.unitedwaymiami.org or send a check payable to Operation Helping Hands, c/o United Way of Miami-Dade, P.O. Box 459007, Miami, FL 33245-9007.

• For Cuba, U.S. regulations limit the amount of cash that can be sent to that country, but Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Cubana have licenses to provide aid to the island. Mark aid ''for Cuba Gustav relief.'' CRS is taking donations via its website: crs.org. The code is 2770-1284. By mail: PO Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090, or by phone at 888-277-7575.

 

 

Food drive for Haiti

   FOOD FOR HAITI

 

   The Archdiocese of Miami is accepting canned food donations for Haiti.

   Drop off locations:

   St. James Catholic Church

   540 NW 132nd St.

   North Miami, 33168

   

   Holy Family Catholic Church

   14500 NE 11th Ave.

   Miami, 33161

   

   Notre Dame D' Haiti Mission

   110 NE 62nd St.

   Miami, 33138

   

   St. Joseph Haitian Mission

   1210 NW 6th Ave.

   Pompano Beach, 33060

   

** Canned food donations will only be accepted at these locations **

Older homes crumble in Camaguey

The Miami Herald's Elaine De Valle has spent the day doing phone interviews with Cubans on the island. Here is her latest report:

Some of the older homes in Camaguey city didn't survive the storm, said Manolo Banegas.

"The old houses couldn't take it and collapsed,'' he said in a telephone interview with the Miami Herald at 3:30.

   Banegas also said that there were many fallen trees and flooded streets.

   "Many of the rivers are overflowing in the outskirts of the city, in the suburbs
streets are even more flooded,'' Banegas said.

   Also in the central part city, there were reports that the roof blew off the historic
Teatro Principal, built in 1850, and that the windows at a bank had also been shattered,
said Elena MartÏnez.

   She also learned from neighbors who had ventured farther than her block and from
friends who telephoned that the cupola at the Casa de Cultura in the Casa de Trabajadores
in central Camaguey city had also collapsed.

   But these were unconfirmed reports because the electricity had shut off at 3 a.m. and
"we've been incommunicado.''

   Her husband went on the roof early Monday after one of the neighbors told the couple
that their drains had clogged and the roof was flooded.

   "It looked like a pool,'' MartÏnez said.

   From there, her husband could survey the damage for several blocks.

   "He could see that some roofs had been ripped off the houses and many trees had
fallen,'' MartÏnez said, adding that the roof of a nearby government factory had landed in
her back yard.

   "And there were a lot of leaves on the roof that were not from trees around here. It
seems the wind brought them from a different neighborhood.''

   MartÏnez said that the winds really started howling around 6:30 a.m.

   "It sounded like a cat in a lot of pain,'' she said.

   She said her street -- San Ramon, betwen Primelles and Solitario -- had many fallen
trees, but otherwise remained unscathed.

   

Lawmakers call on Castro to allow humanitarian aid

Via a news release from US Lawmakers:

Miami, FL - Attached please find the statement issued at today's press conference by Congressmen Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart, State Senator Rudy Garcia, State Representative David Rivera, other elected officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) demanding that the Cuban regime allow humanitarian aid be delivered to the people of Cuba in the wake of the recent devastating hurricanes and to provide information on how individuals can assist the victims:

·  We are here today because according to the data and forecasts that we have available, Cuba is facing one of the worst natural disasters it has ever faced. This tragedy is compounded by years of abandonment of the nation's basic infrastructure due to failed economic policies and political directives from the regime that Cuba has had for 50 years. But we will not dwell on that today.

·  U.S. law and regulation allow unlimited humanitarian donations to the people of Cuba.

·  The U.S. government, South Florida, and the Cuban American community, stand ready to aid the Cuban people in an unprecedented manner, with everything at our disposal, if the Cuban regime allows the aid in.

·  This is a moment to come together as a community to channel, urgently and expeditiously, humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Cuba.

·  Our number one objective today is to help the Cuban people in their greatest hour of need. To do so:

·  The United States government has requested that a Disaster Assistance Relief Team (DART) be allowed into Cuba to assess the damage in order to provide U.S. aid.  For example, in the case of Haiti, that DART assessment has already triggered tens of millions of dollars in disaster relief assistance from the United States to the Haitian people.  Regrettably, the Cuban regime has rejected the U.S. offer. 

·  Numerous NGOs with a track record of disaster relief also stand ready to provide on the ground aid to the Cuban people.  The Pan American Development Foundation -PADF (panamericanrelief.org) and Plantados Hasta la Libertad y Democracia (305-269-1812), for example, licensed NGOs to provide aid in Cuba, stand ready to help channel unlimited private assistance from individuals in the United States to the Cuban people.  NGOs such as PADF and Catholic Charities (catholiccharitiesusa.org) stand ready to immediately work on the ground in Cuba to aid the Cuban people.  We call on the Cuban regime to immediately allow NGOs with a known record of aiding in natural disasters, to enter Cuba.

·  People in Cuba are demanding food, shelter and medicines. They need roofs over their heads and water they can drink. They need electricity restored. Cuba needs massive aid, now. It needs urgent emergency infrastructure support from experts from around the world. And we need to work with the proven and established channels of international humanitarian organizations and Cuban civil society to get the aid directly to the Cuban people.

·  With that goal in mind, we are establishing a working group of elected officials and NGOs to continue monitoring the situation in Cuba, identify ways to provide immediate aid, and channel humanitarian assistance to the people in Cuba.

·  There are numerous organizations that already possess licenses to provide humanitarian assistance and have already started to channel aid, such as Plantados, Caritas, PADF, Directorio, and others.  Any other organizations that would like to provide assistance and wish to obtain a license should know that our Congressional offices and staffs stand ready to assist in expediting that process. There are no impediments in U.S. law or regulation that prevent unlimited humanitarian aid from getting to the Cuban people.  The only impediment is the Cuban regime's unwillingness to allow the aid in. We will not allow this tragedy to be used by the Cuban government or others to unilaterally eliminate sanctions on a state sponsor of terrorism that denies aid to its people (see attached statement of September 6 by the Cuban government).

·  Again, this is a time to come together and do everything we possibly can to aid the people of Cuba in their greatest hour of need.