Cuba Assesses Hurricane Damage
Some 1,828 houses were damaged in Havana, 30 of them fully collapsed, by the strong winds of Hurricane Dennis, reported the city Civil Defense as recovery work is full underway: water and cooking gas services have been restored, but power is still at 25 percent.

In all 300,000 Havanians were evacuated to prevent human losses. No casualty was reported thanks to the population´s discipline and organization and the precautionary measures taken by the Civil Defense.

Roofs suffered the most and the municipalities of Regla, Eastern Havana, Marianao and Cotorro reported the highest number of damages.

Across Cuba, over 1.5 million people and the mobilization of 180,000 civil defense officials helped reduce damages by hurricane Dennis in Cuba.

The deadly storm´s winds and torrential rains pummelled Friday over 600 kilometers of the Cuban territory for 10 hours, killing 10 people in the south-eastern provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba.

Some 1,200 emergency shelters were opened, while other people sought refuge with their families, in what Civil Defense deputy chief, Luis Angel Macareno called “a proof of Cuban people’s solidarity”.

Two thirds of the persons evacuated still remained Sunday at government shelters or with relatives and friends.

According to the Civil Defense official, 1,300 units of engineering and transportation equipment had been mobilized before hurricane Dennis made landfall in Cuba Thursday noon.

Such means, plus 200 mobile power plants will be used during the recovery stage, he added.