of course they have a real dictator.  Just claiming GW is one does not make it so.  Gov. Blanco proved that.

Friday, September 9, 2005


Cuba offers model of how to plan for disaster
 




By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN
St. Petersburg Times




Before Hurricane Ivan whipped Cuba last year with 160 mph winds, the government evacuated nearly 2 million people. The result: not a single death or serious injury.
 

Although it is a small, poor country in the heart of hurricane alley, Cuba is widely acknowledged to do an exemplary job of protecting its 11.3 million residents from natural disasters. "Cuba has not only an evacuation plan but an overall plan for hurricanes and other disasters that is very well developed and organized," says Dusan Zupka of the United Nations' International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction.
 

"I would dare to say that Cuba is a good example for other countries in terms of preparedness and prevention."
 

 

"The single most important thing about disaster response in Cuba is that people cooperate en masse," according to a study by Oxfam, a charity that works in ravaged areas worldwide.  

One strength of Cuba's disaster-preparedness system is that local and provincial officials also serve as the civil-defense officials.
 

"It means that local groups are taking orders from someone familiar to them, not a stranger brought in for the duration of an emergency," the Oxfam study found. Cuba revamped its civil-defense system after a 1963 hurricane killed more than 1,000 people. Since then, disaster planning has been so finely honed that just 16 lives were lost between 1996 and 2002 despite six hurricanes, three of them major.
 

CUBA'S PROCEDURES FOR HANDLING HURRICANES
 

 

Before a new hurricane season starts on June 1, Cuba:
 

Reviews and revises disaster plans based on the prior year's experience.
 

In May, the entire country goes through a two-day hurricane drill, called Meteoro, that includes such practical measures as trimming tree limbs and checking for weaknesses in dams before a storm hits.
 

All those living in high-risk areas are told beforehand where to take refuge - in sturdy homes on high ground or in group shelters, usually schools.
 

Every shelter is stocked with food, water and medical supplies.
 

When a hurricane threatens, Cuba mobilizes under National Civil Defense, which coordinates preparedness from the federal level on down.
 

Radio and TV broadcast continual updates on the storm from the country's meteorology institute

They had a perfectly good plan in New Orleans… no plan is worth a shit if you don’t execute it.

Quoted: They had a perfectly good plan in New Orleans… no plan is worth a shit if you don’t execute it.

+1

Silly twit forgot a few things:
In a communist society  you do what you are told when you are told.
Each block has a CDR (committes for the defense of the revolution). Each committe knows fairly well where all their comrades are.
The media is controlled by the government. You only hear what the central government informs you. If the CG says the "world largest storm is coming" would you argue?
As for me I prefer the "cowboy style" my decision, my neck my responsibility.

Keyword in the Cubanos' plan is LOCAL planning.

What would Fidel do if officials screwed up his plan?  I bet it wouldn't be pretty.

www.loep.state.la.us/plans/plansindex.htm

One problem with this story--the island has no spare food or medicine to stock in shelters.  I suspect the reporter was shown a "Potemkin Shelter".

If they would feel better, I would support sending the "refugees" to Cuba.

Yeah, people tend to cooperate when you point a Kalashnikov at them.

Ask them how many Cubans die EVERY DAY from OTHER means!

Jackasses.

I'll take advice from the U.N. when they cease to be a corrupt forum for third-world shitholes and their tinpot dictators.

Have you guys ever been to La Habana, it is already destroyed it looks like Berlin in '45, time warp back to '59

Cuba has a well rehearsed evacuation plan. It's called turning an old 1950's Chevy pickup into a boat, loading 25 people into it, then sailing to Florida whenever hurricanes aren't nearby.