Galveston’s mayor gets hurricane evacuation tips in Cuba Galveston’s mayor gets evacuation tips in Cuba

Cuba typically floods hurricane-evacuation areas with police and military personnel to convince residents reluctant to evacuate that their possessions are secure. That’s among the lessons that Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas learned Thursday in a meeting with a top Cuban official here.

Thomas discussed hurricane preparedness with Dago­berto Rodriguez Barrera, Foreign Ministry vice minister, for about two hours on the second day of her fact-finding visit to this storm-lashed country.

She is here for four days to share information on how to cope with hurricanes. While in Havana, Thomas also visited the Hospital Nacional and the Latin American Center for Disaster Medicine to learn how Cuba copes with hurricane-related injuries.

“We’ve learned a lot, and we’ve got a lot of work to do,” the mayor said about the meetings, saying she would answer questions later.

Her visit to Cuba comes as the communist nation and the U.S. seek to improve relations. President Barack Obama last week eased restrictions on U.S.-Cuban travel and allowed American companies to seek to operate satellite radio and television on the island.

Thomas arrived Wednesday and dined with Cuban author and poet Pablo Armando Fernandez, but did not meet with government officials until Thursday.

She hopes to bring back information from Cuba, which was hit by four hurricanes last year, including Ike.

Evidence of Cuba’s experience with hurricanes isn’t hard to find. Battered buildings along the five-mile Malecon, a seawall next to Havana Harbor that was built the same time as Galveston’s Seawall, are testimony to a tidal wave spawned by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Ike crashed ashore on Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula on Sept. 13, submerging most of the island and sweeping away houses on the peninsula.

Hurricanes Ike, Faye, Gustave and Paloma struck Cuba last year, which is recovering much more slowly than Galveston because of its weaker economy, said Patrick Doherty, director of the U.S.-Cuba Policy Initiative at the New American Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Only 7 deaths from Ike

Residents of the nation of 11.4 million have an average monthly income of $17, and Cuba lost 10 percent of its gross domestic product because of damage from Ike. Cubans’ daily caloric intake, or the amount of calories from food, has fallen 30 percent since the storm.

However, the Associated Press reported only seven deaths in Cuba from Ike, far fewer than the number of fatalaties in Texas.

Nicholas Kralj, a lobbyist for the Galveston County Beach Erosion Task Force who accompanied Thomas to Thursday’s meeting, said Rodriguez acknowledged that even Cuba had to deal with residents reluctant to evacuate during a hurricane.

Although Cuban evacuations are mandatory, the government makes sure residents feel secure about leaving their homes by a heavy police and military presence, Kralj said.

National hurricane drill

Police and soldiers even move furniture and goods to the second stories of homes where residents were unable to do so, he said.

“These are people who obviously don’t have the same resources we have and are able to evacuate millions of people,” Kralj said. Cuba evacuated at least 900,000 to safe zones and state-run shelters as Ike approached the island.

A mainstay in evacuation preparedness is the two-day hurricane drill the entire country undergoes in May. The government also requires all adults to take civil defense training. Cuba’s state-run media broadcasts hurricane information and weather reports nonstop.

Kralj said he hopes to meet with Cuban officials who will advise him how they cope with erosion and environmental problems caused by hurricanes.

At the hospital and the Disaster Medicine Center, Thomas learned that Cuba evacuates patients but keeps its hospitals open during storms to provide medical care, said Gerald Sullivan, Port of Galveston board chairman, who is part of the mayor’s entourage.

“They are much more experienced than we are because they get every hurricane that comes through,” Sullivan said.

Thomas is expected to meet with officials from Cuba’s Meteorological Institute Friday.

harvey.rice@chron.com