Cubans breathed a collective sigh of relief Monday as Hurricane Ivan bypassed much of the nation as it pounded the western edge of the island with intense winds and heavy rain.
The powerful storm, with winds topping 160 m.p.h., has left a trail of destruction while moving northward across the Caribbean, killing at least 68 people, downing power lines and damaging thousands of homes and buildings.
But Cuba largely escaped Ivan’s fury when the storm drifted westward. The storm brushed by the western tip of the island Monday evening as it passed into the Gulf of Mexico, where its next target is the Southern United States.
Gulf Coast residents from the Florida Panhandle all the way to Louisiana spent Monday securing houses and boats and preparing to evacuate in the face of the hurricane that could hit by Wednesday.
The storm also was expected to lash Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, prompting the island of Cozumel to shut its airport and close its port to cruise ships.
Some forecasters predicted that the Category 5 hurricane could weaken as it moved into the cooler, northeastern gulf waters. Still, experts and politicians warned that Ivan remained a powerful and potentially deadly storm.
“This is not the time to be defiant and let people know you are a macho man,” Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said. “This is a Category 5 storm. Trust me, this is a powerful force of nature you shouldn’t be messing with.”
Cuban officials said they expected the heavy winds and rain and powerful storm surge to cause some damage in the sparsely populated province of Pinar Del Rio, known for its fishing, tobacco production and picturesque landscape.
Fifteen-foot waves also pounded the southern coast of the Isla de Juventud, an island southwest of Cuba.
Still, officials considered themselves lucky that one of the more powerful hurricanes ever in the Caribbean did not directly hit Havana, the country’s capital, or any other major city and cause catastrophic damage.
“We are very relieved,” said Angel Labrador, a Communist Party official in the city of Pinar Del Rio, the provincial capital.
In Sabalo, a small community about 160 miles west of Havana, two-dozen residents evacuated from the nearby coastal village of Bailen gathered at a restaurant to ride out the storm.
Scene at restaurant
Several evacuees sat at barstools listening to the latest news about Ivan on a radio. Others chatted quietly or stared at the driving wind and rain, which some residents braved wearing rain coats or plastic sheeting.
Daniel Fernandez, a 32-year-old fisherman from Bailen, said he was uncertain whether his wood-plank home built near the ocean would survive the storm.
“I think that the sea could destroy all of our homes,” said Fernandez. “We have to wait.”
Fernandez and other Bailen residents said that a dozen fishing villages along Cuba’s southwestern coast have been evacuated as part of a government effort to minimize the loss of life and property.
In total, about 1.3 million of the islands 11.3 million residents took part in the mandatory evacuation, with most Cubans seeking refuge in government shelters or in the homes of relatives or friends.
Maria Elena Orama, a 44-year-old agricultural worker, took shelter Monday in her mother’s sturdy, cement home in Sabalo.
Forty-five relatives and friends–including 15 children–also crowded into the house, which was packed with mattresses, clothing, fans, stereos and other belongings carried by the refugees.
“My house is not bad, but it is not good enough for this storm,” said Orama, who was preparing a pot of rice, beans and yucca for the group.
Like many Cubans, Orama repeated the official government position that Ivan was just another obstacle the small, impoverished nation would overcome with revolutionary “discipline” and “solidarity.”
Cuban expresses solidarity
Orama expressed confidence Cuba would recover from Ivan under the leadership of Cuban President Fidel Castro, who in recent days has spent hours quizzing officials about Ivan’s progress and the nation’s hurricane preparedness.
Dressed in his familiar olive-green military fatigues, Castro on Monday toured the hardest hit areas of Pinar Del Rio and said that he would not accept any humanitarian assistance if offered by the United States.
Cuba turned down $50,000 in assistance offered by the U.S. government after Hurricane Charley battered the island last month, killing at least four people and causing more than $1 billion in damages.
In all, Ivan has hit 11 countries, killing at least 39 people in Grenada, 15 people in Jamaica, five in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic, three in Haiti, one in Barbados and one in Tobago.
