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Cuba

Act Alliance Appeal: Strengthening communities affected by Hurricane Sandy in Cuba - CUB121

Attachments

Appeal Target: US$ 499,031

Balance Requested: US$ 464,273

Geneva, 04 December 2012

Dear Colleagues,

Hurricane Sandy, as a category 2, hit Cuba in Mar Verde in the province of Santiago de Cuba on October 25th at 1:00 AM and left Cuban territory five hours later in Cape Lucrecia in the municipality of Banes, province of Holguin. The main effects of the hurricane, including winds and raining, remained for three days in the affected area. Strong winds, heavy rains, flooding and sea surge affected the provinces of Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba. The emergency assistance was started by the Cuban Civil Defence (CCD) on Thursday 25th for the provinces of Guantanamo, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba.

There were 11 deaths, 9 in the province of Santiago de Cuba and 2 in Guantanamo, including 6 women among them and a 4 months old child, many elder people reported as hurt or wounded, this is unusual in Cuba where normally there are not deaths from hurricanes. A total of 343,230 people were evacuated, 328,881 to private houses with relatives and neighbours and 14,349 to shelter centres.

A total of 2,695 hectares of banana and plantains were devastated in Santiago de Cuba, also significant number of hectares of coffee, potato, yucca, rice and other basic products of Cuban diet were destroyed by the floods and strong winds. In some provinces like Holguin and Guantanamo reported significant damage to industrial crops like sugar cane, plantain and others, which in a short term would affect economy and employment. Important loses were registered also in individual farms, small plots of permaculture production suffered innumerable damages, which will impact the food security in this region. In Holguin, The agricultural production which was most highly affected was the plantain as 85% of the production was lost. In Santiago de Cuba, the impact of Hurricane Sandy in agricultural production affected 100% the community of Rancho Cruz, causing loss of food supply to the population of that community, the strong winds of the hurricane was also generated a process of erosion of this cultivated land.