A tale of two storms

LONDON (AlertNet) - The 2004 hurricane season has been one of the fiercest in years, taking the lives of more than 800 people in the Caribbean and southern United States.

Ironically, the tempest that caused the greatest loss of life, Jeanne,was one of the weakest. By the time Hurricane Jeanne slammed into Haiti it had been downgraded to a tropical storm. But it sent heavy rains and a surge of water through several northern towns, triggering flooding and mudslides that killed some 700 people.

A few days earlier, Hurricane Ivan, the biggest storm in living memory, had hit Cuba without causing a single fatality.

What explains the discrepency?

Ivan only grazed Cuba , so the damage could have been much worse,but disaster experts say the country took invaluable precautions that saved lives and protected property.

With military logistics, Cuba evacuated 1.3 million people, moving out entire coastal communities in the tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio in western Cuba.

"The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does," said the head of the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), Salvano Briceno.

"From an early age, all Cubans are taught how to behave as hurricanes approach the island."

According to the UN/ISDR, Cuba holds an annual two-day training session to help people prepare for hurricanes.

Two days before a hurricane strikes, entire communities of people -- all versed in interpreting information from the Cuban Institute of Meterology -- begin implementing emergency plans. Local authorities assist the most vulnerable people. Transport is organised and hospitals and schools are converted into shelters.

Not so in Haiti.

The poorest country in the Americas can't afford to offer Cuba-style education and training. It does not even have an early warning system.

Moreover, environmental degradation exacerbates the impact of storms. The country is particularly vulnerable to flooding because of extensive deforestation that has left few trees to hold soil in place, increasing water run off and allowing mudslides to flow unchecked.

Preventing deadly floods would mean reversing deforestation and land erosion, no mean feat on an island where most of the eight million inhabitants depend on wood to make charcoal for cooking.

In the meantime, storms -- even weak ones like Jeanne -- will continue to wreak havoc on the tiny country. Around 2,000 Haitians died when extensive floods washed away villages near the Dominican-Haitian border in May 2004.