Hurricane Sandy cut an island-hopping path of destructionthrough some of the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the Caribbean lastweek, bringing catastrophic crop losses and new worries of hunger and disease.Authorities in several countries are still adding up Sandy’s costs, but thestorm appears to be one of the most devastating to the region in years. EasternCuba and southern Haiti were especially hard hit by searing winds and flashfloods.
At least 69 deaths have been reported across the Caribbeanuntil Wednesday, including 52 in Haiti and 11 in Cuba. The toll could rise asemergency responders and relief workers reach more rural and mountainous areas.
After battering Jamaica Wednesday, the storm made landfallin Santiago de Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane with gusts topping 110 miles perhour. Its ferocious winds shredded roofs in the island's second-largest city(population 500,000) and sent soggy masonry crashing down into the streets.
At least 130,000 homes in the city and surrounding provincewere damaged in the storm, according to Cuban officials, and more than 15,000houses were completely destroyed. Another 52,000 homes were damaged in theadjacent province of Holguin, where swollen rivers flooded towns and turnedfarms into swamps.
The Cuban government has not given an estimate of Sandy’soverall costs, but some of the island’s key industries appear to be affected.Tourist hotels were wiped out by storm surges reaching 30 feet along Cuba’ssouth coast, while coffee plants in the mountains were ripped out of theground.
Cuban state newscasts have highlighted government reliefefforts in upbeat tones, but President Raul Castro warned that it would take“years of work to recover” after touring the damage. A multibillion-dollarrepair bill could be a major setback for Castro’s economic reform agenda,including plans to slash hundreds of thousands of unproductive jobs fromgovernment payrolls.
And Cuban communist authorities have not formally asked forhelp from international donors and charities. The Venezuelan government hassent a ship with 650 tons of food and heavy equipment for Cuba and Haiti, butsome residents in Santiago were reportedly looking to Hugo Chavez’s governmentfor more help.
Cuban dissident activists called for Raul Castro’sgovernment to reach out for international aid, allow private religiousorganizations to distribute more charity, and for a suspension of steep customsduties on food and other relief supplies sent by Cubans abroad or carried intravelers’ suitcases.
Cuba has also been coping with a cholera outbreak and anepidemic of mosquito-borne dengue fever. Health officials in eastern Cuba havebeen distributing chlorine disinfectant and urging residents to boil water, butpower service remains out in nearly all of Santiago de Cuba, where manyresidents rely on electric stoves.
The spread of cholera is an even greater threat in Haiti,where the disease has already killed more than 7,400 and sickened 600,000.Sandy’s rains sent torrents of water pouring through tent camps crowded withHaitians who lost their homes in the 2010 earthquake, and the Haitiangovernment said the flooding had made nearly 20,000 families newly homeless.
Even before the storm many Haitians were struggling withescalating food prices, and authorities reported extensive crop losses in thesouthern third of the country, where banana trees were flattened and foodstores were spoiled.
