Storm Reports

Final Post from Cuba - Nuevitas, Camaguey, Post Ike

In Building No. 9 on Micro Street -- a four story apartment building overlooking the Supermercado Micro, a group of more than a dozen neighbors gathered to help each other through Ike's aftermath. Windows were blows out in the apartment building, as were several doors Zuliemy Garcia, 25, said in a phone interview.

The band of neighbors contributed rice, beans, ground meat for picadillo, and oil to heat a portable stove and are making due without any electricity- Garcia said it could be days before the electricity is restored.

"No one slept, we all stood together," Garcia said. "Thank God we are all fine now, so for now we're trying to make the most of it spending time at a neighbors apartment cooking for each other."

Garcia said Cuban officials have dropped off rations of milk and yogurt for residents. She added though the trees in her neighborhood have been knocked over, as well as street lamps, neighbors took to the streets to starte removing any rubble from the streets.

"Everyone is volunteering how they can -- some are cutting up the wood, some are taking out the trash, everyone is pitching in," Garcia said.

Still Ike's wrath through the town was enough to drive many neighbors to tears.

"When we looked out side and saw what happend to our city a lot of people were crying," Garcia said. "Did I cry? Of course not, I'm strong. It was just painful to see how much it distroyed."

LAURA FIGUEROA, The Miami Herald

Turks and Caicos Post Ike

The storm pulled the wood roof off of the fire station at the airport on Grand Turk, scattering the equipment about. Large planks of wood rested on top of some of the supplies.

Firefighters James Walkin, 36, and Jerald Bailey, 27, stood atop the pile, working to clean up the wreckage. "We've got the vehicles, but the station is completely destroyed," Walkin said.
"It's the first time I've been through a storm, and it ain't a good thing."

Once Walkin finishes working to repair the station, he has to start the process of rebuilding his own home on Grand Turk. The winds tore off the roof.

"My house is destroyed, the furniture, everything is gone," said Walkin. "It almost makes me lose my head, but I gotta fix it. I hope to get some help from the government."

In the Palm Grove neighborhood of Grand Turk, Ian Astwood, 36, worked with a few other men to clean out the inside of his father's store. He wiped down rain soaked shelves, not far from where canisters of Quaker Oats remained in a line. As Ike unleashed its fury, Astwood stayed in his house about a block away with his wife and young son.

As the storm wailed at about 2:30 a.m., he moved his family into the bathroom, figuring it would be the safest spot. About thirty minutes later, the west section of his roof tore off and he decided he had to make it to his father's place.

"My wife and son started crying and after they screamed at the top of their voice, I knew we had to leave," he said. "On my way my Jeep windows blew in, two of the tires punctured."

On Tuesday, the neighborhood was coming together to clear the streets, patch roofs, cut down trees and clean up. "Times like this everyone comes together," he said. "All this in time we can rebuild. The important thing is everyone stayed safe."

The store, Palm Grove Variety Store, is the family's lifeblood, he said. "We built this out of our pockets," he said. "This was my parents life savings, their life work."

Gitmo Prison Camp Relatively Unscathed

At the Pentagon's showcase prison camps, commanders reported minimal damage. Ike whipped winds drove tarp-like screens at the prisons into some concertina wire.

But by Tuesday, the most cooperative war-on-terror captives were back in their communal bunkhouse yards at Camp 4 hanging laundry in the post-Ike sunshine.

"The storm passed quickly enough whereby the detainees couldn't get too restless.," said Army Brig Gen. Gregory Zanetti, deputy camps commander.

CAROL ROSENBERG, from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, The Miami Herald

One Woman's Ike Encounter in Santiago de Cuba

Gisela Arvelo, 43, -- who lives in the Alta Mira section of the southeastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba, said some houses in her neighborhood had walls crumbling down and their roofs taken off. But other than some water filled roads, it was back to work for Arvelo Tuesday afternoon, as she peeled potatoes at the eatery Paladar Las Gallegas.

"I just kept looking out for my avocado tree," Arvelo said of riding out the storm. "I didn't want anything to happen to it, and I didn't want it to fall onto the house."

Arvelo added; "It's the worst hurricane I've experienced. Just the fear of hearing the wind as strong as it was  -- I can't even begin to put into words. It was the sound of a wild animal let loose."

LAURA FIGUEROA, The Miami Herald

Gitmo Bay Catches a Break

Compared to other portions of Cuba, the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay was spared the brunt of Ike.

Navy station officers reported a few fallen branches, toppled trees and ripped up awnings but nothing that hampered operations.

The airfield was reopened and ferry restored Tuesday after a two-day closure, just in time for a planeload of U.S. lawyers and Canadian media to arrive from Washington D.C. for hearings ahead of the Oct. 8 war crimes trial of Toronto-born detainee Omar Khadr.

CAROL ROSENBERG, from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, The Miami Herald

More Destruction from Ike in Baracoa

Nélida Sevila, 52, whose guest house lies a few blocks from the sea in Baracoa, said that while all she lost was power and water for a while, Ike is the worst storm she has seen hit her town in Guantánamo province.

"I've never seen such a thing," she said by phone. "This is the worst I have seen this year and in all my life. It breaks your heart."

The storm surge caused the most damage, she said. From her house, Sevila could see the towering waves pounding on the sea wall. She called that part of the town ‘‘totally destroyed."

"Everything, everything, everything," said Sevila, who sent her guests to a hotel before the storm hit.

Baracoa's cathedral was not harmed, she said. But a high school and a bus station were in shambles.

Sevila lost power for 26 hours, and her water was back on in the wee hours of Tuesday. Her son's house did not fare as well: He lost roof tiles and his kitchen was flooded, she said.

"I'm still a little nervous," she said. "This is a disaster. The sea, the sea is a betrayer."

PATRICIA MAZZEI, The Miami Herald

Seaside Town of Baracoa, Cuba Hit Hard by Mudslides from Ike

In the seaside town of Baracoa, in Guantanamo province, Ike hit the sea wall hard and caused mudslides that blocked a major road into the town.

Dennys Rodríguez Guilarte, 44, who runs a Baracoa guest house, said homes around the town's sea wall suffered most from winds and the storm surge.

"The sea wall is completely destroyed," he said by phone. "The winds pushed the sea onto the people who live there."

He said about 1,000 homes had serious damages, but he knew of no deaths.

"Now there's a hurricane of people trying to recover everything from the debris," said Rodríguez, who described himself as an expert in electrical medicine.

He did not have problems at his guest house, six blocks from the sea wall, because it was on higher ground.

Mudslides and flooding have blocked La Farola, the main road between Baracoa and Guantanamo. The armed forces had arrived this morning with some equipment and rebuilding materials like cement, Rodríguez said.

An Irish woman and Dutch man were staying at his house during the storm, and since Ike they have joined the recovery efforts, he added.

Verónica Bravo, who answered the phone at the guest house, said the strength of the storm had been frightening.

"I feel a little scared by what has happened," she said. "It was too ugly, too horrible."

PATRICIA MAZZEI, The Miami Herald

A Statement from Cuba's State-run Newspaper on Ike

In one of the first official written statements about the impact of Hurricane Ike on Cuba, a state-run newspaper reported that Ike marked the 24th hurricane season since 1799 in which the island nation suffered a direct hit from two or more intense hurricanes.

The paper pointed out that Ike's landfall in Cuba occurred only eight days after Gustav passed through, breaking a 1948 record when two major storm systems struck just 15 days apart.

And from the Command Center for the National defense Council for Disaster Events comes death notices of the following:

• 76 year-old Pedro Corso Soto and 35 year-old Angel Sanchez Cabello, both residents
  of the town of Rancho Veloz, in the municipality of Corralillo, Villa Clara
  Province,
• 35-year-old Pascual Vilalfaa Rivera, of the city of Camagey
• and 74 year-old Carmelina Di’guez Santiesteban, of El Negro, in the
  municipality of Banes.

Corso Soto and Sanchez Cabello reportedly died while trying to take down a rooftop antenna, which fell on a power line, causing the pair to be electrocuted.

Villafaa Rivera, reportedly was killed when a wind-toppled tree slammed into a wall of his home, which then collapsed on top of him.

Di’guez Santiesteban reportedly died when her home collapsed while she was inside.

The statement said the death report was preliminary and offered condolences to the victims' families and friends.

Accounts of Ike from Newspaper Staffer's Families in the Caribbean

Staffers of El Nueva Herald, the Miami Herald's Spanish language sister paper, share reports from relatives in the following places: Matanzas, Guanabacoa, Caibarien, Trinidad and
Bayamo.

Their translated reports are as follows:

"I'm from Matanzas and spoke to my family.  They reported a lot of winds and rain, but up until now there haven't been any tragedies.  I'm from the Versalles neighborhood and my name is Teresa."

"I have just been in communication with Guanabacoa.  Although there are strong winds since 4 a.m., there haven't been any major destructions, but remains dangerous to be outdoors.  The inconvenience is that the electricity was shut off, to prevent accidents from fallen power lines.  They expect the cyclone to pass by 10 a.m."

"I spoke with my family in Caibarien (Paseo de Marti) yesterday and everything was alright, although there were winds of up to 110 kilometers per hour, but nothing major.  The ocean did flood the Cultural Center.  I hope this helps to at least know that in Caibarien the damage was not as bad as expected."

"I have just spoken with Trinidad.  Up until now everything is alright, except that they have no electricity and it is very hot.  Since it is dark, no one has ventured out, but the winds have damaged the gazebo in the park and the movie theater.  Many homes have sustained damage but everything is alright."

"I am from Bayamo and have spoken to my family over the phone and Internet.  Nothing has been affected in Bayamo, they only sustained some small gusts of wind.  There have been no personal tragedies and there is no flooding."

"I spoke to my family in Havana and the winds were passing through, but according to my relatives it wasn't that strong and thankfully everything is under control."

El Nuevo Herald Staff

Ike Keeps Monroe County Schools Closed

Because Hurricane Ike's outer bands aren't expected to fully clear the Keys until Wednesday, Monroe County schools announced they will stay closed Wednesday and reopen Thursday.

The Category 1 storm was moving northwest through Cuba, its eye passing about 50 miles from Havana, and was expected to emerge in the Gulf of Mexico later Tuesday. Ike could restrengthen to a major Category 3 hurricane by the time it makes a Gulf Coast landfall, which could be early Saturday in Texas.

A 75-mph wind gust was reported Tuesday in Havana, while a Key West weather station had a 54-mph gust.

CAMMY CLARK, The Miami Herald