With Irma bearing down, Cuba, Haiti braces for worst
Hurricane Irma — one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic — is hurtling through the Caribbean and headed for Haiti and Cuba, and then early next week on track to land in Florida and the Southeast U.S.
Already, the Category 5 storm leveled Barbuda, damaging 95 percent of its buildings and leaving the island “barely habitable.”
Experts and aid workers in Haiti say they’re concerned that Hurricane Irma could devastate the impoverished country, which is still recovering from the damage Hurricane Matthew caused in September and October of 2016.
Jim Ansara is the CEO of Build Health International. His organization is active in the construction of health care facilities in Haiti and was involved in the response to Matthew. He worries that the impact of Irma in Haiti could be catastrophic and that Haitian officials won’t be offering residents much assistance.
“The Haitian government, which is incredibly resource constrained, just does not have any kind of presence to help mobilize people, to get people to shelter, to clothe and house people after a disaster like this,” he says.
That means Haitians aren’t necessarily counting on government help in the event of a disaster.
“Haitians are incredibly resilient and resourceful. They work together very well in times like this, without a lot of support from the government or NGOs,” Mr. Ansara adds.
Hurricane Matthew devastated wide swaths of Haiti last October. New reports estimate that about 1,000 people were killed, but Mr. Ansara says the actual number of casualties were likely much higher. “There are no statistics about how many children have died, how many adults have perished because of damage to health care infrastructure, because of malnutrition [caused by crop shortages due to flooding], on and on and on.” And it could happen again.
In the adjacent Caribbean island — Cuba — residents are also preparing for an onslaught.
“These are the final few hours, perhaps, before the winds start picking up and the storm front starts heading fast this way,” says the BBC’s Will Grant. “People are bracing themselves.”
Cuba has an admirable track record when it comes to hurricane preparedness.
“Partly it works here because people follow the instructions that the government gives out; they obey the evacuation orders. They go to the shelters if they’re told to do so. There are, of course, consequences if they don’t obey government orders,” Mr. Grant notes.
Hurricane Irma marks Cuba’s first major storm since the death of longtime leader Fidel Castro. The decades-old U.S. trade embargo sparked by Mr. Castro’s 1959 revolution complicates residents’ efforts to stockpile supplies, protect homes and rebuild after a storm.
“Boarding up your home isn’t easy if you can’t find nails and hammers; if you can’t find decent two-by-fours. You can’t go to Home Depot,” Mr. Grant adds.
Meanwhile, with two confirmed deaths in the French Caribbean, President Emmanuel Macron of France says there will be “victims to lament.” There was also at least one death in Anguilla, a British territory, and another in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, bringing the total to four so far.
Barbuda, home to about 1,600 people (3 percent of the country’s population), “is literally rubble,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne told ABS TV/Radio Antigua.