For the third time in just nine days, Cubans tested and confirmed the effectiveness of its civil defense system, to face three deadly hurricanes: Ike, Gustav, and Hanna.
With an organization recognized by UN agencies, the entire nation took the challenge as a call a general alarm fighter, in the end the key element.
The island was impacted by several points of its geography by capricious winds, in the case of Gustav, reached a record 340 kilometres per hour on its way through the province of Pinar del Rio.
This is the first time in the history of the national meteorological records, furthermore, that three hurricanes hitting the Caribbean island state in such a short period of time, as is that two of them-Ike and Gustav-entered and left almost the same points in the West.
Desolation and pain; social houses and buildings demolished; plantations of fruit, grains and vegetables missing; overflowing rivers; floods and penetrations of the sea hundreds of metres in depth; clothing, food, furniture and equipment electrodométicos destroyed.
Crops of importance such as coffee, rice and sugarcane ruined; industries detained; centers of poultry production, swine and dairy out of service; fractured or flooded roads; hundreds of poles of electric power transmission and trees uprooted or parties.
Ike beat over a thousand kilometres of land on the island. More than 150,000 cans of coffee are in the soil and mobilization for the collection of grain will be imminent.
The world has witnessed once again the conduct of Cubans against these exceptional circumstances imposed by nature in this area of the planet, where the effect of climate change is evident every year and more lethal.
In all cases, troops of the Armed Forces headed decisively in both phases of preparation and recovery and support to those affected.
The Cuban president, General of Army Raúl Castro, remained in communication with key leaders in the provinces threatened.
The Head of State directed to the highest authorities in each territory to use all available means to protect lives and property and resources of both State and the population.
"His encouragement and his message of confidence and full support in these conditions have been vital," he said.
Gustav to hit 140,000 buildings, 90,000 of which were houses.
Ike led to the cessation of production of nickel, a major export items of Cuba, and converted warehouses and port facilities in disaster areas; roofing tiles and light flew again to become deadly projectiles.
Four people died during his tenure: two electrocuted and the other by landslides.
Ike, who entered Cuba with category four on the Saffir-Simpson scale of five, left fifty dead in Haiti, among these 13 children.
Nearly two million people were evacuated in Cuba on this occasion, as part of security measures imposed by the Civil Defence. Of the 14 provinces, 13 were placed under hurricane warning or alarm.
The country was virtually paralyzed to deal with it. Step by step, minute by minute, the Cubans again woven its complex web of countless actions and measures to prevent and protect themselves in situations of this kind.
A colleague described the set of tasks of the Civil Defense as "a perfect mechanism watch," while another stated that the Cubans took the brunt of Gustav, and Hanna Ike "as a great army." True.
The leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, comparing the consequences of the passage of these phenomena with a nuclear blow.
But the hurricane season in the Caribbean has not ended. A dozen of these have been generated so far and, according to forecasts before November 30 can be formed. October is the month most likely whirlwind of great intensity.
How many? Nobody dares to make such precision. The international body that gives names to these phenomena before another 11 for the remainder until that date.
Kyle, Laura, Marco and eight claims are identifying more taxes in advance up to Wilfred, who was supposedly the last.
How many of these will impact the territory of the largest island in the Caribbean? Nor is it possible to predict.
What will the response and the keys of Cubans? Organization, discipline, solidarity and unconditional support of its institutions and leaders. Nobody will be abandoned to their fate.
