And while those Caribbean countries face formidable rebuilding efforts: they have help, St. Martin is a French Colony, Anguilla is a British overseas territory, and other countries like Turks and Caicos will get a 13 million dollars payout from the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, and other CARICOM countries will get special support form the Caribbean Development Bank.
And Cuba was definitely the hardest hit as Irma sat on the islands coastline for 48 hours with Category 4 and 5 winds. It smashed dozens of hotels, and left millions without power, while destroying thousands of acres of sugar cane. Indeed, paying for the reconstruction will be a challenge: But Cuba stands alone: the US Embargo - which President Trump renewed hours before Irma made landfall, prevents Cuba from joining the IMF and the World Bank, as well as other regional lending institutions that grant infrastructure loans.
But, because of the strong state system in that country - it is also probably the best equipped to get through a monster storm like Irma and its aftermath. That's because since 1963 when Hurricane Flora killed two thousand people, Cuba has been refining its emergency response systems. The Embassy's Minister- Counsellor told us more yesterday about his country's ethic of disaster preparedness and emergency response:
Orestes Hernandez- Minister Counselor, Cuban Embassy
"For many years we've been in the trace of every single hurricane in the Caribbean. So, we've been suffering because of that. We've been obliged just to set an important nationwide evacuation and preventive program. Everybody is involved in that concept- from the top of the government to the lowest level of the society in terms of people out here live. So, it means that everyone is aware that we need to do it. And secondly, there is a political willingness in this. So, if your government has decided to protect you, it doesn't matter how much it costs. It doesn't matter if you are a rich country or not, your government is not going to tell you try to find a place. They are going to find a place for you and they help you to find a place and they try to keep you all together and as soon as that natural disaster pass, your government is just in the frontline of that recovery and you can see that there is an issue where you need to involve the whole society. So, I think that this is the base of the concept that we have in Cuba."
The death toll of ten in Cuba is that country's highest since Hurricane Dennis killed 16 in 2005.
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