Cuba (MNN) ― Hurricanes Gustav and Ike together delivered the worst hurricane-related blow in Cuba's history. Damage estimates are coming in at five-billion dollars.
"The real needs now in the country are food and construction material, but especially food", says Rodolfo Juarez of the Cuban Council of Churches.
How long will it take to recover from the storms? "Nobody knows. This is a poor country, and still in some areas we are suffering from the effects of Michelle, when the hurricane passed in 2003. Most of the province has no electricity yet (from the recent storms)."
Nearly 450,000 homes were ravaged, and more than 63,000 are damaged beyond salvage. Twelve days after Ike, hundreds of thousands of Cubans still need temporary housing while the government rebuilds.
While the housing sector was hit hardest, the nation's power grid and highway system fell, thousands of schools were damaged and the infrastructure seemed on the verge of collapse.
Sonny Enriquez with International Aid (IA) says they are supporting the ministry efforts of the Council to get emergency relief in, with plans to help address longer-term medical needs to one of the harder hit areas, Pinar del Rio.
Enriquez is working with the Cuban Council of Churches to supply thousands of additional hygiene kits to the province of Pinar del Rio, where an estimated 300,000 houses have been destroyed. "Whatever little they have, has been wiped away. Essential medicines and the poor little clinic that exists in Pinar del Rio has also been damaged."
An export license held by the ministry expired after IA's emergency response several years ago. When Gustav and Ike hit, relief efforts were complicated a bit. IA made an immediate application for renewal, but that could take up to four weeks IF it is granted.
That's four weeks too long for many of the storm survivors who need food, clean water and medicine now. Enriquez says they gave the Council representatives the immediate response for distribution, with the hope that when the new license is granted, they can bring in the heavier medical equipment.
In the meantime, the local believers are taking care of those they can help. It's putting feet to the Gospel. Enriquez says the churches in the area saw a lot of growth after Michelle passed through because "when a church comes to the need of the people at their point of desperation, the people are so open to listen to the Gospel."
