Cubadebate

  Thousands (of those who own cars) clog the roads out of New Orleans, fleeing Hurrican Ivan  

Simon Wollers

Radio Havana Cuba

September 15, 2004

The spectacle of thousands of southern US residents currently jamming the roads fleeing Hurricane Ivan is in sharp contrast to the carefully planned government evacuation of 1.5 million people in Cuba this past week.

Western news outlets such as the Miami Herald and the BBC made a point of criticizing Cuba's civil defense policy in the face of the potential devastation of Ivan which required the mass evacuation of residents out of danger areas. Cubans weren't given a choice, they said, they were - horror of horrors - forced to evacuate and not given the "freedom" to die.

So, which is best? Leave people to ride out Ivan's 165 mph killer winds that had already left some 70 people dead in its track through the Caribbean, or require that they leave the danger area in time to save not only their lives, but anyone else coming to their rescue? The evacuation was carried out in Cuba at government cost in an orderly fashion using public transportation which did not block roads essential for the use of emergency vehicles - very much in contrast to the sauve qui peut scenes we saw on television in Louisiana and Alabama today. And let us not forget the 100,000 residents of New Orleans that have no car to flee in, relying on non-existent state help to get out of town. In Cuba EVERYONE gets out - regardless of income.

The recent destruction that Hurricane Charley wreaked on both Cuba and Florida shows what a difference a good civil defense policy makes: there were four deaths in Cuba as opposed to 30 in Florida - and Cuba's infrastructure is considerably less modern. In 1998 the passage of Hurricane Georges also resulted in four deaths in Cuba as opposed to 600 in nearby Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This time Cuba avoided the worst of Hurricane Ivan with no deaths or injuries in spite of the fact that it seriously ravaged the eastern coastal area, the Isle of Youth, and the westernmost tip of the island. It's also worth mentioning that in Cuba no looting takes place and no curfew is ever required after these natural disasters.

This burning obsession to criticize Cuba at whatever cost, despite its efforts to protect life, is no less than obscene. The island's civil defense is recognized as one of the most effective and efficient in the world. It has gained United Nations recognition as such and is even grudgingly given good marks by the otherwise hostile US Interests Section in Havana.

The contrast between the calm instructions given by President Fidel Castro on Cuban TV and the panicked plea by the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governors of Alabama and Mississippi that everyone flee the path of the sixth largest hurricane in recorded history is, quite frankly, pitiable, and the reporters who file the kind drivel critical of Cuba's humanitarianism in the face of such natural catastrophes, shameful and ludicrous.