Voluntary Report - public distribution

**Date:** 8/25/2004

**GAIN Report Number:** CU4003

CU4003

**Cuba**

**Market Development Reports**

**Report**

**2004**

**Approved by:**

![](media/image1.wmf)Paul Hoffman, Director

Caribbean Basin ATO

**Prepared by:**

William A. Messina, University of Florida

**Report Highlights:**

\" The following report was prepared by William A. Mesina, Jr. of the
University of Florida\'s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
(IFAS). This report takes a look at the impact of Hurricane Charley on
Cuba, providing general background information as well as information on
the effects of the storm on Cuba\'s infrastructure and agriculture. It
should be noted that information on the topic has been quite limited and
hard data even more difficult to obtain. This report is intended to
bring together this limited information, together with IFAS\' knowledge
of the Cuban Agricultural sector gathered over the past 10 years, to
provide a timely and useful overview of the situation."

Includes PSD Changes: No

Includes Trade Matrix: No

Unscheduled Report

Miami \[C11\]

\[CU\]

An Assessment of Hurricane Charley's Impact on Cuba

# BACKGROUND

Just after midnight on Friday, August 13, 2004 (Fidel Castro's 78^th^
birthday) Hurricane Charley struck the island nation of Cuba. The storm
had reached hurricane strength just south of Jamaica on Wednesday,
August 11 and came ashore on the southern shoreline of western Cuba
between the towns of Batabanó and Guanimar. (See Figure 1.) The storm
traveled north-northwest across the narrowest part of the island passing
almost directly over the capital city of Havana. Hurricane Charley moved
off the coastline of Cuba about 2 hours later at approximately 2 a.m.
with the eye of the storm exiting near the communities of Baracoa and
Mariel approximately 15 miles west of downtown Havana.

Reports and information from Cuba on the damage from Hurricane Charley
have been limited. However, in an effort to be responsive to inquiries
about storm damage in Cuba, this report attempts to compile the limited
amount of information which is available from the press and combine it
with knowledge of Cuba's economy and agricultural sector developed over
the past 10 years of research on Cuba conducted by the University of
Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Food and
Resource Economics Department to offer our assessment of the situation
in Cuba following Hurricane Charley.

# GENERAL INFORMATION

Hurricane Charley was a Category Two storm on the Saffir-Simpson
Hurricane Scale[^1] when it struck Cuba. Category Two storms include
sustained winds of between 96 and 110 mph (154-177 km/hr). Officials
from Cuba's meteorological service reported winds gusts from Hurricane
Charley as high as 125 mph, with sustained winds of 105 mph. This was
reported to be the strongest hurricane to strike Havana Province and the
city of Havana since 1915.

In addition to the potential physical and structural damage from the
wind and rain associated with a hurricane of this magnitude, Category
Two storms also typically can produce large storm surges in coastal
areas. Therefore, it is not surprising that initial press reports
indicated that the storm caused substantial damage.

Figure 1. Path of Hurricane Charley.

![](media/image2.png){width="6.666666666666667in" height="5.0in"}

Source:
<http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ftp/graphics/AT03/refresh/AL0304S+GIF/152158S.gif>

Cuba has proactive storm preparation procedures and the government's
National Information Agency reported that 150,000 people were evacuated
from areas prone to flooding in western and central Cuba. An additional
47,000 people were evacuated from old and unstable buildings in the
colonial area in the city of Havana and 1,800 were evacuated on the
sparsely populated Isle of Youth to safer locations on the island.
Reports indicated that upwards of 2,000 tourists were evacuated from the
resort island of Key Largo off Cuba's south coast and various other
resort areas. In part as a result of these evacuation programs, loss of
life in Cuba from Hurricane Charley was limited to 5 casualties, three
deaths in collapsed buildings, one from a tree which fell on a home and
one drowning.

# INFRASTRUCTURE

Cuba's infrastructure is generally in poor condition as the result of 45
years of inadequate maintenance. (For example, even under normal
conditions, building collapses in the city of Havana are not uncommon
because of deteriorating foundations.) Damage to all types of
infrastructure from Hurricane Charley therefore is expected to be
significant both in the city of Havana and smaller towns and rural areas
over which the storm passed.

# Public Utility Systems -- Prior to Hurricane Charley's arrival, the Cuban government cut off electrical service to prevent accidents and damage to electrical systems from power surges and intermittent service. This was a very wise precaution because damage to the power grid in the city of Havana, Havana Province and Pinar del Rio Province to the west was very substantial. In addition to many miles of wires and hundreds of power poles brought down by falling trees and wind, Hurricane Charley knocked down 13 large, high voltage wire towers at a power plant outside the town of Mariel which supplied power to both Havana and Pinar del Rio Provinces. This compounds the problems from electrical shortages resulting from a breakdown at a power plant in Matanzas Province (to the east of Havana Province) back in May.

While electrical power is gradually being restored in the city of
Havana, outages in rural areas likely will take longer to repair.

Perhaps an even more serious problem, however, is the lack of running
water and water service resulting from the storm. Only about half of the
wells supplying the city of Havana are reported to be in operation
because of the electrical outages. Lack of power also is prohibited the
pumping of water from sources outside the city. A Reuters' news service
report indicated nearly 70 percent of the city of Havana still did not
have running water four days after the storm struck.

This is proving to be a particularly difficult problem for the Cuban
government. A number of the pumps are being converted to operate on
truck-mounted motors and generators, but as recently as Wednesday
(August 18) wire service reports indicated that water service only then
was being gradually restored. In the meantime, the Cuban government is
attempting to meet short-term needs by distributing water in tanker
trucks, with residents having to carry water in buckets from
distribution areas to their homes.

Outages of gas for cooking also are reportedly widespread more than a
week after the storm.

**[Housing]{.underline}** -- With each passing day, the number of homes
and buildings in Cuba reported to have been damaged by Hurricane Charley
is growing. On August 17, the Cuban government press reported that over
1,100 buildings had completely collapsed and another 1,800 had suffered
partial collapses from the storm, while 9,000 homes had roof damage in
the city of Havana and Havana Province alone. Another 5,000 homes were
damaged outside of these regions.[^2] By August 20, a report from the
Cuban press indicated that Hurricane Charley had damaged or destroyed
more than 20,000 homes and buildings. Damage in some areas was
devastating. For example, the Cuban government reported that in the
fishing village of El Cajio on Cuba's south shore near where the
hurricane made landfall only 12 of 300 homes were left standing.

Cuban government officials also report that in the city of Havana,
Havana Province and Pinar del Rio Province over 500 schools and 22
health centers were damaged by the storm.

**[Airport, Port and Industrial Facilities]{.underline}** -- Havana
International Airport was closed as Hurricane Charley approached but it
has resumed service despite reported damage to the control tower. The
extent of additional damage to these airport facilities is not known.
However, it should be noted that Orlando International Airport sustained
quite extensive damage from Hurricane Charley even though the storm was
not as strong when it hit Orlando, Florida as it had been when it struck
Havana

No information is available on damage to Havana harbor or other harbor
and port facilities, but large cranes as well as warehousing facilities
undoubtedly sustained damage.

Cuban government officials have reported damage to 60 industrial centers
throughout the region, but offered no additional detail.

**[Tourism Infrastructure]{.underline}** \-- The tourism industry
represents the single largest source of hard currency earnings for the
Cuban government. Given the chronic trade deficits that the Cuban
government runs, the flows of funds from tourism make this industry one
of the most important economic sectors for the Cuban economy. Because of
its importance some analysis of the tourist infrastructure is in order
although we by no means consider ourselves authorities on this sector of
Cuba's economy.

While no specific information is yet available on damage to tourist
hotels and facilities, it is speculated that infrastructure for the
tourist industry may not have experienced particularly extensive damage
for a number of reasons. First of all, there are relatively few tourist
facilities on the southern shore of Cuba where the storm came
ashore[^3]. Also, most tourist hotels and facilities throughout the
island are relatively new or recently substantially refurbished and thus
are likely to be able to survive severe weather conditions better than
older, poorly maintained structures. That said, some of the newer
tourist hotels in Havana with large glass fronts and panels may well
have sustained damage from high winds. Also, Cuba's cruise ship
passenger facility in Havana harbor could have been damaged by the
hurricane.

Damage was reported to the Hemingway Marina and hotel complex on the
western side of the city of Havana. No reports were found indicating a
large storm surge on the north shore of Cuba from Hurricane Charley so
flooding in this area appears to have been limited to that caused by
heavy rains which appear to have been spotty in nature.

It should be noted that Cuba has numerous oil wells pumping in close
proximity to the northern coastline (in some cases within about 200
feet) east of the city of Havana and near the prime resort beaches at
Varadero. Any storm-related damage to these oil wells could create an
ecological disaster that would be devastating for Cuba's critically
important tourist industry. However, to this point there have been no
reports of damage to any oil wells or pumping facilities from the storm.

**[Rural Infrastructure]{.underline}** -- Because of the communication
difficulties within Cuba following the storm and the characteristic
emphasis on reporting on larger population centers, no information is
available on damage to rural areas other than the statistics for homes
damaged in Havana and Pinar del Rio Provinces (as separate from the city
of Havana). However, based on the extent of the damage caused in the
city of Havana after the storm had been over land for about two hours,
it is safe to assume that rural areas around the city and areas, which
were struck earlier, suffered significant damage as well.

The Cuban press provided some support for this observation on Sunday,
August 15 when the reported that "Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage
called for the stepping up recovery efforts (sic) in the city of Havana
so as to more quickly direct increased support to surrounding rural
areas hard hit by Hurricane Charley" (Agencia Cubana de Noticias,
Division de la Agencia de Información Nacional.
[www.ain.cubaweb.cu/ingles2.htm](../www.ain.cubaweb.cu/ingles2.htm)).

## AGRICULTURE

Very little detailed information is available regarding damage to Cuba's
agricultural sector from Hurricane Charley. Food supplies are a
particularly important issue for the Cuban government given the
difficulties it has faced in feeding its populace even before the storm.
This section will bring together what spotty information is available
and attempt to speculate on the impact that Hurricane Charley may have
had on Cuba's various agricultural commodity and natural resource-based
sub-sectors.

Agricultural production data by province in Cuba is not available.
However, it is known that Havana Province, Pinar del Rio Province
(immediately to the west of Havana Province) and Matanzas Province
(immediately to the east of Havana Province) tend to be important
production regions for agricultural commodities to feed the people in
the city of Havana, Cuba's largest city with a population of about 2.2
million.

Hurricane Charley was a fairly compact storm with hurricane force winds
only extending out about 30 miles from the eye. Tropical storm force
winds (39 to 73 mph) may extend out as far as 125 miles from the eye of
a hurricane but in the case of this compact storm, it appears as though
wind speeds dropped off rapidly beyond about 40 to 50 miles, so major
wind damage likely was limited to a fairly narrow swath across Cuba.

Heavy rains accompanying Hurricane Charley appear to have been somewhat
isolated although they are reported to have caused flooding problems in
a number of areas. Soils in Cuba tend to drain fairly quickly so except
for damage that may have been caused by runoff erosion, damage to crops
from rainfall may not have been particularly extensive.

The Cuban government did report damage to more than 3,000 "agricultural
installations" though there was no indication of what was included in
this classification. Presumably, it refers to barns, packinghouses, and
processing facilities. Significant damage may also have been experienced
at food warehouses and storage facilities in the city of Havana and
elsewhere in the affected region resulting in losses of crops already
harvested and/or processed and even on imported food products.

Affects of hurricane wind and heavy rain will vary among crops so the
following sections offer some observations for each of Cuba's major
agricultural crops.

# Sugar[^4] -- Hurricane Charley likely caused very little damage to Cuba's sugar industry because the area where the storm passed is not an important sugarcane producing area. Also, sugarcane can tolerate high winds and rain without long-term damage. No large sugarcane mills are in the area either so this is probably a relatively insignificant event for the Cuban sugar industry. (Cuba's sugar industry is facing many other structural problems as indicated that total sugar production has fallen from near 9 million metric tons in the late 1980s to about 2.2 million metric tons today. In fact, Cuba's sugar production volumes over the past several seasons have been among the lowest in the past 70 years.)

# Citrus[^5] -- Because of climatic differences, Cuba's citrus ripens before Florida's and therefore the citrus harvest for white and red grapefruit had already begun in Cuba. As Hurricane Charley was approaching, Cuban officials reported that farmers had accelerated their harvesting of all crops, particularly grapefruit. 

# 

# Hurricane Charley did impact some citrus growing areas in Cuba, though the largest growing areas were not in the path of the storm. The Isle of Youth off Cuba's southwestern shore was the first citrus production region to be struck by the storm. This area produces almost exclusively grapefruit and was within approximately 30 miles of the eye wall of Hurricane Charley as it passed on its way to the main island and therefore experienced heavy winds from the storm. These winds undoubtedly caused significant fruit drop and likely did some tree damage as well. Before Hurricane Charley struck, citrus officials on the Isle of Youth were estimating that grapefruit losses from the storm would be approximately 15,000 metric tons (approximately 390 thousand 85 lb. boxes). 

On August 20 the Cuban government reported 66,000 metric tons of citrus
were knocked from the trees by Hurricane Charley in Havana Province.
Citrus production in Havana Province is more heavily oriented towards
oranges than grapefruit. Based upon somewhat dated statistics on the
proportion of oranges versus grapefruit production in Havana Province,
it is very roughly estimated that approximately 50,000 metric tons of
the loss in the province was oranges (representing about 1.2 million 90
lb. boxes) and the balance of 16,000 metric tons (approximately 400
thousand 85 lb. boxes) was grapefruit.

No hard information is available on possible tree damage in either the
Isle of Youth or the Havana Province, although anecdotal reports
filtering into Havana from the Cuban countryside indicate substantial
damage to citrus trees with many broken limbs and uprooted trees. Damage
in Cuba may be comparable to the extensive damage levels experienced in
citrus groves in DeSoto, Hardee and Polk counties in Florida.

Cuba's fresh citrus exports peaked in the early 1990s. Since that time,
there has been a clear and consistent trend toward exporting smaller
volumes of fresh fruit and increased volumes of juice concentrate. This
trend is particularly pronounced for grapefruit.

There is a juice processing plant on the Isle of Youth operating as a
joint venture between the Cuban government and a Panamanian firm by the
name of Grupo BM with Israeli principals. Hurricane Charley may well
have done some damage to this processing plant, but no information is
available on the nature or the extent of damage.

There is a juice processing plant operating in eastern Pinar del Rio
Province operating as a joint venture in cooperation with an Italian
company. While this plant was located far enough west of the path of the
storm that it likely avoided any major storm damage, electrical power
outages in Pinar del Rio are reported to be very extensive and likely to
take quite a while to remedy. In fact, some press reports have indicated
that the entire electrical power grid for Pinar del Rio province has
been shut down, though this information is not substantiated.

If damage to these juice processing plants was not too severe and if
they have electrical power, it would be possible to recover some of the
ripe grapefruit that was blown off of the trees by the storm if the
fruit could be picked up and transported to the plant and processed
within a matter of a few days. If the plant in Pinar del Rio does not
have electrical power, recovered fruit could be transported to more
distant juice processing facilities. (It would not be physically or
economically feasible to transport fruit from the Isle of Youth to
processing facilities on the main island of Cuba.) In reality, given all
of the other problems being faced by the government following the storm
and the inherent inefficiencies of Cuba's planned economic system, none
of this fruit is likely to have been recovered for commercial use.

Also, power outages at processing plants imply the loss of refrigerated
juice concentrate inventories on hand as well.

These citrus losses are notable for Cuba because of the lost revenues to
the government from the inability to export juice and fresh fruit. At
the very best it will be one year before Cuba's juice and fresh citrus
exports are able to recover. However, to the extent that the trees are
damaged, recovery in production will take longer.

Given current world citrus production levels and juice inventories,
these losses are not significant in the context of the world citrus
market.

# Tropical Fruit -- Tropical fruit tree crops are among the most vulnerable crops to hurricane damage. Bananas and plantains are particularly susceptible to damage from high winds and agricultural workers in Cuba were hurrying to harvest these crops as the hurricane was approaching. Following the storm, reports indicated that entire banana fields were leveled and that nearly all of the banana production in Havana province may have been wiped out. However, in most cases, these trees will sprout again from the base and be back in production relatively quickly.

# 

The situation is far different for crops like avocado, mango and other
tropical fruits. For these crops, not only can fruit be easily knocked
off of the tree (as was the case with citrus discussed earlier), but
these crops are often even more perishable than citrus fruit so they
deteriorate more quickly once they are blown off of the tree. Also, tree
branches can be broken and, with their large canopy, entire trees
actually can be snapped off or blown over by hurricane winds with their
root system dislodged from the soil. In nearly all cases, this destroys
the root system, killing the trees and, unlike bananas, these trees will
take many years to grow to their previous size and productive capacity.
Anecdotal reports from Havana indicated that such tree losses were
indeed suffered.

Losses to tropical fruit crops in the path of the storm is very likely
to have been substantial, and it is speculated that this trail of
destruction may well extend out for forty miles or more on either side
of the path of the eye of the hurricane. However, no quantitative
information is available on the extent of the losses

# 

**[Vegetable Crops, Roots and Tubers]{.underline}** -- Vegetable crops,
roots and tubers are produced fairly extensively in Havana, Pinar del
Rio and Matanzas Provinces to supply the food demands in the city of
Havana. No reports are available on damage to general food crops from
Hurricane Charley. Given the extensive damage that appears to have taken
place in Cuba's citrus industry from hurricane winds, the damage to
vegetable crops from the storm likely were substantial.

Press reports from Cuba indicated that as Hurricane Charley was
approaching the island farmers were attempting to harvest as much of
their crops as possible in an effort to minimize storm losses.
Specifically mentioned in the reports were citrus (as discussed
previously), root and tuber crops and yucca.

Roots and tubers make up an important part of the Cuban diet. In
addition to potatoes, non-traditional (to the U.S. palate) crops such as
boniato and malanga are important inclusions in the Cuban diet. Root and
tuber crops are particularly vulnerable to heavy rains which can
saturate the soil and create disease damage and substantial losses.
However, inasmuch as the torrential rains from the storm only were
experienced in isolated areas, it may be that immature root and tuber
crops that were not harvested did not sustain appreciable damage. On the
other hand, as extensive as storm damage to buildings and structures
appears to be, storage buildings where harvested root and tuber crops
were stored may well have sustained substantial damage, thus
jeopardizing the stored crops as well.

Inasmuch as vegetables, roots and tubers are fairly short-cycle crops,
it would not take too long to replace the lost production assuming that
seed and/or propagative material is available. However, there likely
will be shortages in the very short term while these crops are
replanted. Also, inputs of all types are in short supply in Cuba so
there may well be some constraints which farmers face in this recovery
process.

Notably, one report from the Cuban press states that Cuban President
Fidel Castro described "precautionary measures taken \[that\] will help
minimize the destructive consequences of the storm \[including\] the
protection of greenhouses crucial for producing vegetables for national
consumption and the tourist sector. These structures were quickly
disassembled but can be set up again in just a few days" (Agencia Cubana
de Noticias, Division de la Agencia de Información Nacional.
<http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/english/ago13iggerngish04.htm>).

**[Livestock and Dairy]{.underline}** -- The area where Hurricane
Charley struck is not one of Cuba's important livestock grazing regions.
However, there are a number of dairy operations in this part of the
island because of its proximity to Cuba's largest city since locating
dairy operations near major population centers helps to minimize
transportation logistics and spoilage of the product, which is a
significant problem given Cuba's notoriously inefficient *Acopio* food
collection and redistribution system. A Cuban government report on
August 20 indicated that, in fact, 280 milking sheds lost their roofs or
sustained other damage from Hurricane Charley. The extent of the "other
damage" to these facilities, however, was not detailed so there is no
indication of to what degree or for how long milk production might be
impacted.

There are acute shortages of milk and dairy products in Cuba so these
products are rationed at low levels to only children and the elderly and
they are very important sources of nutrition to these population groups.
Damage to the dairy industry facilities in Cuba will undoubtedly affect
milk production in the short term and place pressure on the Cuban
government to find other ways to provide milk to the aforementioned
segments of the population.

Reports from the Cuban press indicate that nearly 160,000 head of
livestock were moved from low lying and flood-prone areas, and there are
no reports of livestock lost. It is unlikely that there were any
significant losses in livestock due to the Hurricane.

**[Marine and Seafood Products]{.underline}** \-- The town of Batabanó
on the southern coast of Cuba near where the eye of Hurricane Charley
came ashore is one of Cuba's most important processing centers for spiny
lobster and finfish and is the nerve center for Cuba's sponge industry.
Because of the increasing importance of these products as generators of
export revenues, the industries tend to be quite well organized (by
Cuban standards). Fishing boats supporting these industries presumably
were moved to safety. However, most of the processing facilities are
located on or near the coast and the storm surge created by Hurricane
Charley is reported to have been as high as 15 to 20 feet in this area.
Therefore, it is expected that damage to these facilities likely was
very significant. It is expected that this will significantly curtail
Cuban exports of these products in the near to medium term, constraining
hard currency earnings and detrimentally impacting the financial
situation faced by the Cuban government.

## SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Based on the information presented in this briefing, some short-term
food shortages in Cuba may be expected as a result of damage to the
agricultural sector and related infrastructure from Hurricane Charley.
The shortages would be most likely experienced in the city of Havana
with its population of over 2 million. However, extensive outages of
electrical power, water and gas experienced by Havana residents
following the storm likely have raised tensions and tempers in the city.
For that reason, the Cuban government may choose to divert food supplies
from other regions of the country in an effort to keep food shortages
from becoming yet another source of frustration for the citizens of the
city of Havana.

These shortages could be alleviated to a certain extend by increased
imports of food and agricultural products. Such imports could come from
any of Cuba's trading partners, but the relatively immediate need for
these food supplies would suggest that the United States would be an
important potential supplier because of its proximity and the short
transit times for delivery of the food products. However, since U.S.
regulations require cash payment for all purchases by Cuba, the question
arises as to whether or not the Cuban government can afford to pay cash
for these increased purchases. The Cuban government may have small
reserves for such purchases but Cuba's persistent balance of payments
deficits and other macroeconomic problems suggest that these reserves
are probably quite limited.

No press reports have been found indicating an appreciable jump in U.S.
food and agricultural exports to Cuba and the official U.S. government
reports of shipments that might reflect increases in purchases since the
storm are not yet available.

Potential storm damage to the port of Havana would not be expected to be
a particularly important constraint since there are other ports in the
region that likely could handle the shipments although the more distant
they are from Havana, the higher the transportation costs and the more
difficult the logistics faced by the Cuban government.

The extensive damage to buildings in and around the city of Havana
suggests that agricultural and food storage facilities throughout the
affected area also sustained damage. This is expected to result in
losses of stored food products thus further exacerbating the problems
being faced in feeding the population.

All of this said, no reports have been forthcoming regarding food
shortages in Cuba.

Another consideration is the issue of the impact of Hurricane Charley on
Cuba's foreign currency flows. Cuba's exports of shellfish and citrus
products undoubtedly will be reduced in the short term from storm
damage. In fact, shellfish processing facilities probably will take
quite a bit of time to be rebuilt and this could limit exports into the
medium term. The amount of damage sustained at the juice processing
facility on Cuba's Isle of Youth will greatly influence Cuba's
productive capabilities although, realistically, there may not be enough
grapefruit remaining on the trees on the Isle of Youth for this to be a
pressing issue. The level of damage to Cuba's citrus trees will
determine the extent to which Cuba's citrus exports will be affected in
the medium term. These short and medium terms losses in export revenues
are problematic for the Cuban government.

Physical damage to the tourist industry infrastructure in Cuba from
Hurricane Charley is likely to be fairly limited. Furthermore, the
active involvement of a number of European and Canadian firms in joint
venture partnerships with the Cuban government at many resort hotels on
the island suggests that investment funds necessary for repair and
recovery from the storm will be more readily available than if the Cuban
government had to provide same. For these reasons, the impact of the
storm on the tourist industry may be fairly short term in nature. The
summer months are the slow season for Cuba's tourism industry and by the
fall Cuba's European and Canadian joint venture partners should be able
to make any necessary repairs and mount promotional campaigns to ensure
potential tourists that Cuba has fully recovered from the storm so that
they will be able to fully enjoy their vacation. Nevertheless, any
slowing of the inflows of foreign capital from tourism in the coming
months places yet more pressure on the Cuban government finances.

Questions on this report should be directed to its author:

William A. Messina, Jr.

University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
(UF/IFAS)

Food and Resource Economics Department

P.O. Box 110240

Gainesville, FL 32611-0240

Voice: (352) 392-1826, ext. 308

Fax: (352) 846-0988

Email: <wamessina@ifas.ufl.edu>

[^1]: For detail on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale go to the U.S.
    National Hurricane Center website at

    <http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml>.

[^2]: A Catholic Relief Services report indicates that as many as 20,000
    homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm, while Reuters news
    service reports that Hurricane Charley damaged 40,000 homes.

[^3]: The resort area of Key Largo is located off Cuba's south shore,
    but the storm passed about 50 to 60 miles west of this island. Given
    the compact nature of Hurricane Charley, damage to this resort area
    may have been relatively minor and limited to some flooding.

[^4]: For additional information on Cuba's sugar industry go to
    <http://www.cubanag.ifas.ufl.edu/publications/sugar.htm>.

[^5]: For additional detail on Cuba's citrus industry see: *The
    Potential Impact of Hurricane Michelle on the Cuban Citrus
    Industry*. EDIS document FE 328, a publication of the Department of
    Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension Service,
    Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida,
    Gainesville, FL. Published November 2001.
    <http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FE328>; *The Citrus Industry In Cuba
    1994-1999*. University of Florida, Institute of Food and
    Agricultural Sciences Department of Food and Resource Economics,
    International Working Paper Number IW01-4.
    <http://www.cubanag.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/cubacit.pdf>; and other
    publications available on the Citrus publications page of the Food
    and Resource Economics Department's website on Cuban agriculture at
    <http://www.cubanag.ifas.ufl.edu/publications/citrus.htm>.