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• 09 / 01 / 2008

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Reporting live on the nationally televised Round Table program Sunday evening, Col. Miguel Angel Puig, operations chief of the Civil Defense Council, said there were no casualties during the passing of hurricane Gustav that battered the municipality of the Isle of Youth and Pinar del Rio province.

Nineteen people with minor injuries were reported, said the official.  

Speaking by telephone to the program, Pinar del Rio's Civil Defense Coordinator Olga Lidia Tapia said more than 80 high tension towers were brought down by the winds, as well as three television and radio transmission towers.

An estimated 86,000 homes and 372 schools were partially or totally damaged by the hurricane.

Among the major agricultural losses were nearly 3,500 tobacco drying barns that collapsed and 63 poultry houses.

On the Isle of Youth the electricity system was totally devastated and a large number of schools suffered severe damage both in their infrastructure, as well as to teaching aids and supplies, said Ana Isa
Delagado in statements via telephone broadcasted on the TV program.

(ACN)