Civil planning kept casualties to a minimum

Casualties appear to have been kept to a minimum, largely thanks to the enormous government civil defence operation which was started several days before the hurricane hit and is likely to continue for several more days.

More than 600,000 people were moved from vulnerable regions, mainly along the coast or low-lying isolated rural areas.

The whole 5,500 population of the southern fishing town of Surgidero de Batabano was evacuated. Hurricane Lili completely flooded the town five years ago, destroying hundreds of homes.

"I really don't want the hurricane to come through again," said one resident, Jose Luis Olivera, 37, who lives there with his pregnant wife and daughter.

People living in fragile housing in Havana, many of them in the colonial centre of the city, were also taken to safe shelters.

Hundreds of thousands of animals were moved because Cuba, with its fragile economy, can ill afford to lose them.

Government action

Cubans were urged to stay in their homes during the storm where they watched constant television coverage of the approach of Hurricane Michelle. When the power went, they switched to transistor radios.

The authorities gave out constant advice on storing food and boiling water, on how to protect houses and other security measures. Their aim was also to reassure as well as to protect the population.

President Fidel Castro oversaw some of the operation. He praised the Cuban people for what he called their organisation and unity.

The economic cost of Hurricane Michelle to the Cuban economy will be huge. The timing could not have been worse as the country is struggling to cope with a huge drop in tourism, its main foreign currency earner, following the 11 September attacks on the United States.

But the communist government in Cuba has always placed the emphasis on people rather than profit and its operation, in those terms, to limit the damage caused by Hurricane Michelle appears at this stage to have been a considerable success.