This report was prepared by William A. Mesina, Jr., Coordinator of Economics Analysis, and Thomas H. Spreen, Professor and Chair, both of the Food and Resource Economics Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. The report highlights the effects of hurricane Dennis (July 2005) on Cuba's agricultural sector as well as on other economic sectors, according to a USDA attache report posted on the Foreign Agricultural Service Web site..
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Between July 7 and July 9, 2005, Hurricane Dennis moved along the southern coast of Cuba then moved across the island, enveloping nearly the entire country with strong hurricane and tropical force winds and driving rain. This was the fourth major hurricane to strike Cuba in the last four years. As a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale1 when it came ashore in central Cuba on July 8, Hurricane Dennis brought with it sustained winds reported at nearly 150 mph (240 kph) and wind gusts as high as 155 mph (250 kph), making it the strongest hurricane to strike Cuba in four decades (Havana Journal, July 10, 2005).
As Hurricane Dennis approached southeastern Cuba on July 7, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that hurricane force winds extended outward for 50 miles from the center of the storm, while tropical storm force winds extended for up to 140 miles from the center. Prior to the eye of Hurricane Dennis making landfall in central Cuba, the storm traveled parallel to Cuba's shoreline south of the island, blanketing Cuba's eastern-most provinces with tropical storm force winds and very heavy rainfall, which the NHC reported could be as high as 5 to 10 inches and possibly as high as 15 inches over the Sierra Maestra mountains in southeastern Cuba. Cuba has been experiencing severe drought conditions for the last few years, particularly in the eastern portions of the island, so rainfall associated with the storm allowed notable replenishment of some of the nation's water reservoirs and presumably helped to replenish groundwater resources. Such heavy rainfall amounts over a short period of time, however, caused serious flooding problems in many areas, including the destruction of an important road between Santiago de Cuba and Granma provinces in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Prensa Latina (July 12, 2005a) reported that 20 km of Cuba's railway lines were destroyed by the storm.
Hurricanes typically tend to move across Cuba's long and relatively narrow land area. However, after moving parallel to Cuba's south coast just offshore, the eye of Hurricane Dennis move onshore on the southern coast in the central portion of the island near the port city of Cienfuegos (Map 1) at about 1PM on July 8. Once it made landfall, the storm traveled slowly west-northwest across a major portion of the island until it exited at Guanabo, approximately 30 km east of the city of Havana as a Category 1 hurricane (Bauz; July 9, 2005; Boadle, July 9, 2005). The eye of the storm was over land in Cuba for about 11 hours.
Because of its path, Hurricane Dennis directly and significantly impacted 12 of Cuba's 14 provinces (all but Cuba's western-most province Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth, off Cuba's southwest coast), affecting eight million of Cuba's total population of over 11 million (UN-OCHA, July 13, 2005). * William A. Messina, Jr. is coordinator of economic analysis and Thomas H. Spreen is professor and chair, both in the Food and Resource Economics Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. 1 For details on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale go to the U.S. National Hurricane Center website at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml.
The hurricane caused 16 deaths in Cuba, 2 the most of any storm since Hurricane Flora in 1963, which caused over 1,100 deaths and prompted a complete restructuring of Cuba's emergency preparedness systems, which now rank among the best in the developing world.3 Over 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated in advance of the storm, along with nearly 17,000 tourists (Reuters, 11 July 2005).
Initial estimates of economic damage from Hurricane Dennis are in excess of $1.4 billion, although in a televised speech and program on July 11 and 12 Fidel Castro indicated that had the storm struck the city of Havana directly, damage could have exceeded $3 billion (Oramas, July 12, 2005).
Storm assessment and recovery efforts have been hampered by severe damage to electrical and communications services across the island from Hurricane Dennis. These include the destruction of over 1,000 electrical power poles, 28 radio and communication relay towers, 4 television towers, and 39 high voltage electric towers by the storm's ferocious winds (Reuters, July 11, 2005; Prensa Latina, July 12, 2005a). Initial reports indicate that more than 120,000 homes were damaged by the storm, 15,000 of which collapsed; 24,000 of which had their roofs blown off; 60,000 of which had partial roof damage; and 25,000 of which had other damage (UN-OCHA, July 13, 2005). Over 73,000 Cuban people are reported to be homeless and nearly 160,000 do not have adequate shelter as a result of damages caused by the storm (Havana Journal, July 11, 2005).
Significant damage also has been reported to schools, stores, and factories throughout the island along with 160 health facilities, including clinics, hospitals, and physicians' offices. 2 13 deaths were reported in Granma province and two in Santiago de Cuba, both in eastern Cuba, and one death was reported in Sancti Spiritus province in central Cuba. 3 A Reuters news service article (July 12, 2005a) reported that 10 major hurricanes hit Cuba between 1985 and 2004 but they caused only 22 deaths in total.
Cuba's official newspaper Granma reported on July 12 that 2.5 million people (over 20 percent of the Cuban population) were without running water due to damage to water distribution systems, contamination of water supplies, and/or the lack of electrical power to run water pumps (Oramas, July 12, 2005). The affected areas are reportedly being served by water tankers until such time as their systems are repaired, cleaned, or otherwise back in service.
AGRICULTURE:
Because of the communications disruptions caused by the storm, it has been particularly difficult to obtain detailed information from rural areas on the nature and extent of damage to Cuba's agricultural sector. Preliminary reports, however, indicate that the damage to agriculture throughout the central portions of the island was extensive, which would be consistent with the damage expected from a storm of this magnitude (UN-OCHA, July 13, 2005).