Just when we thought things could not get any worse another hurricane is heading towards Cuba. This time is called PALOMA and although is not as bad as previous GUSTAV and IKE last September the Cuban goverment is not taking any chances and is evacuating the southern- central part of the Island.

Tracking northeast to strike Cuba’s south-central coast late Saturday, and with Havana still reeling from a devastating storm season, Paloma would be the fifth to crash into the island this year.

The island began mobilizing its defenses in readiness for the tempest — preparing total evacuations of low-lying regions and coastal cities on the southern coast, prepping medical teams and equipping shelters for residents and up to 3,000 foreign tourists.

Cuba declared a hurricane warning for its central and eastern provinces Friday, covering Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Las Tunas, Holguin, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo, civil defense officials said.

In Holguin province, the area most devastated by Hurricane Ike in September, head of the region’s Civil Defense Council Miguel Diaz-Canel ordered emergency measures to protect life and property.

Gladys Sanchez, a resident of Minas, north of the central city of Camaguey told AFP by telephone that “no one had expected another hurricane.”

“There are people here who are still homeless,” she said, adding that local residents had just begun to recover from the previous storms.

“It has been raining here since morning — everything is dark,” she said.

The 2008 hurricane season, including devastating Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, has killed hundreds across the Caribbean and Central America and wrought billions of dollars in damage across the region.

Gustav and Ike, which struck Cuba on August 30 and September 9, caused an estimated 9.3 billion dollars in damage, almost double the original estimates, according to official reports.

In the Caribbean’s most populous island nation, with more than 11 million people, the storms have damaged some tourism infrastructure and destroyed about 80 percent of crops.

This is what is left of Batabano after Ike. Batabano is a municipality in located in the south of Habana Province.

The Hurricane IKe or Gustav did not pass by Batabano but the strong winds and rains caused huge devastation in the area.

If you are a tourist you will probably never get to see something like this.

This communication has been sent by the Managing Director of Melia Cayo Coco

As you must be aware of, hurricane Ike affected our facilities, especially our Beach Restaurant which was offering Buffet service while major renovation is taking place in our Main Buffet. Therefore, we have been forced to create an alternative solution which we hope do not last long to resolve this situation so as our valued guests will not be affected.

From this Saturday, September 20th onwards, services will be provided as follows:

BREAKFAST (from 7.30 hrs. to 10.00 hrs.)

International Restaurant “Las Caletas”
Italian Restaurant “La Terrazza”

LUNCH (from 12.30 hrs. to 15.00 hrs.)

Italian Restaurant “La Terrazza”
International Restaurant “Las Caletas”

DINNER (from 19.00 hrs. to 22.00 hrs / previous reservation)

International “Las Caletas”
Italian Restaurant “La Terrazza”

SNACK BAR “EL SALADITO” will keep offering service 24 hours a day.

We expect everything is back to normal by the 1st of October and will be sending formal notice to all of you.

Thanking you in advance for your understanding and cooperation in this matter,

Noel Cavaco Dias
Managing Director

Dear readers

We have just received the following information regarding the Vinales Valley area.
- Viñales roads are open and safe.

- La Ermita Hotel will open tomorrow and Rancho San Vicente is already open, Los Jasmines Hotel will take some time.

- Cayo Levisa, they are doing the excursions but not accepting clients to sleep there as the roof of the cabins are quite damamged.

- Soroa Hotel is in perfect condition.

If you have any questions please post a comment.

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

This is the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. It caused disaster in Baracoa.

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

Hurrican Ike in Baracoa

As you all know, Hurricane IKE has just passed through Cuba, a week later after our Island been affected by Gustav. Both hurricanes with very strong rains and winds almost all over the country.
All our clients were protected; they felt safe and secure and were assisted by our staff and managers, all the time. That allowed us to guarantee that any personal injuries were suffered, as it is already common in Cuba, in situations like this.
Nevertheless, the Cubanacan hotels located in Pinar del Río (Viñales, Levisa and Soroa), Holguín (Guardalavaca), Camaguey (Santa Lucía) and Las Tunas (Covarrubias) have suffered some damages. Thus, interrupting their normal operations for the moment.
At present we are immersed in a reconstruction programme. The reopenings will take place in accordance with the situation in each specific region and hotel. We would like to present to you as proposed dates, the followings:
Holguín:
Brisas Guardalavaca (206 rooms)
• Villas/ Monday 15/09/08
Club Amigo Atlántico Guardalavaca
• Villas/ Monday 15/09/08
Granma
Marea del Portillo, El Yarey
• The operations remains, without any affectation
Santiago de Cuba
The city (Versalles, Meliá Santiago)
• The operations remains, without any affectation
Beach area (Carisol /Los Corales)
• Monday 15/09/08
Brisas Sierra Mar/Los Galeones
• Saturday, 13/09/08
Pinar del Río
Viñales (Rancho San Vicente – 34 rooms)
• Saturday, 13/09/08
Jazmines, Ermita and Soroa
• To be advine in a few days.
Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Villa Clara and Sancti Spiritus
• The operations have been reestablished in all the hotels and all their rooms
Varadero (This includes Breezes Jibacoa)
• The operations remains, without any affectation
Península de Zapata
• Batey Don Pedro: the operations remains, without any affectation
• Playa Girón: Saturday, 13/09/08
• Other Services: Saturday, 13/09/08
La Habana
• The operations remain, without any affectation, with exception of Villa Megano, in which the electricity is still cut off. Possible reopening: 15/09/08
Camaguey /Santa Lucía; Las Tunas /Covarrubias
• The reconstruction works are taking place. The reopening dates will be announced later on, once the works have advanced.
In order to keep you frequently up to date, on how the recovery process of our hotels is going, the Commercial Direction will be issuing a systematic updating of each hotels situation and its recovering process.
Thanks for your continious collaboration and support.
Best regards,
Raul Naranjo Aday
Vice-president
Cubanacan Group

13:00 Local Time: Hurricane Ike is heading South towards the sea – reported the Cuban National Meteorology Centre. The exit point is expected somewhere near Jaruco a small town on the south coast of Ciego de Avila province.

Experts fear that the category 2 hurricane could gain strength on the Caribbean Sea to then return to the Cuban Island.

Hurricane “Gustav” in the Caribbean has left a balance of 85 dead, and a revealing fact: none of them was Cuban.

“Gustav” reached Cuba on Saturday, August 30, with sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour, category 4 in the Saffir-Simpson scale. The province that was hit the worst was Pinar del Rio. In its path around the island, the hurricane caused 18 injuries, none serious, and destroyed partially or totally 90,000 houses. All will be rebuilt.

Tourist resorts like Cayo Largo and Las Terrazas (La Moka) remain close until further notice.

“Gustav”, a category 4 hurricane with its passage through Cuba , did not cause any victim in a poor and underdeveloped country.”Gustav”, a category 2 hurricane with its passage by the

U.S., left seven dead (for now) in the most powerful country on earth.

HAVANA (AFP) — Hurricane Gustav rapidly gained strength Saturday as it bore down on western Cuba after ripping through the Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, leaving 85 people dead.

“Data from an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft indicate that Gustav continues to rapidly strengthen and now has maximum winds 115 miles (185 kilometres) per hour with higher gusts,” the US National Hurricane Center said.

That made Gustav “a dangerous category three hurricane” on the five-notch Saffir-Simpson scale — equal in strength to Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall in the southern United States three years ago.

The western province of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth in the south were put on the highest level of weather alert.

Tens of thousands of residents were asked to leave their homes in advance of Gustav, which was forecast to hit Cuba later Saturday.

“It will produce a storm surge and torrential rains in the western part of the country,” warned Cuban meteorologist Jose Rubiera.

Gustav brushed past the Cayman Islands late Friday, with no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Barreling earlier across Jamaica, however, it killed at least 11 people. In Haiti, it left 66 dead plus 10 missing. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, the death toll stood at eight.

At dawn Saturday, the center of Gustav was located about 410 kilometers (255 miles) east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba, the National Hurricane Center, based in Miami, reported.

It was moving northwest at around 19 kilometers (12 miles) per hour. If it keeps its present course, the center said, it could hit Louisiana — the same state hard hit by Katrina — in the early hours of Tuesday.

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding told reporters Friday that the storm had displaced between 3,500 and 4,000 people in his Caribbean island nation.

“I am concerned that there are still a number of persons who are still unaccounted for,” Golding said.

Streets in the normally bustling capital Kingston were soaked and reeking with the stench from overflowing sewers. Powerful gusts sent metal roofs flying and threatened to wreak havoc on banana production.

Although the heaviest of the rains had subsided, many Jamaicans worried about returning home. “It is all wet and I am afraid to sleep inside there,” said Kingston housewife Charlene Markland.

In Cuba, a fragile and aging housing stock is highly vulnerable to hurricanes. More than two million people live in the capital Havana, where many colonial-era buildings, crowded with families, are prone to cave-ins.

Anxiety meanwhile grew on the American side of the Gulf of Mexico.

In New Orleans, officials began busing out residents on a voluntary basis in anticipation of Gustav, and considered mandatory evacuations to prevent a repeat of the devastation and deaths of 2005.

President George W. Bush declared Friday a state of emergency in Louisiana and Texas — enhancing their access to federal disaster relief coordination and funding.

Katrina killed around 1,800 people, mostly in the New Orleans area, as it made landfall on August 29, 2005 as a category three hurricane, after reaching category five over the Gulf of Mexico.

Three major oil producers — BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell — on Thursday evacuated workers from their facilities in the gulf where nearly a quarter of US crude oil installations are located.