•HCON 17 IH 
Whereas flooding and landslides cut off land routes and hin-
dered delivery of humanitarian assistance in Haiti; 
Whereas in Haiti, Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm 
Hanna destroyed the bridge linking the devastated region 
of Gonaives to St. Marc on the country’s mainland; 
Whereas in Haiti, extensive agricultural areas of the 
Artibonite Valley are flooded, and many crops remain un-
derwater; 
Whereas in Jamaica, Hurricane Gustav alone directly af-
fected more than 4,000 people; 
Whereas in Jamaica, the storm caused substantial damage to 
infrastructure and caused flooding in at least 72 commu-
nities, rendering 120 roads impassable, and affecting 65 
percent of the country’s water supply, causing 12 deaths, 
and putting 248 people in shelters; 
Whereas the storms contributed to heavy losses in Jamaica’s 
agriculture sector, decimating the banana crop, a primary 
export commodity in Jamaica; 
Whereas in Turks and Caicos, Tropical Storm Hanna and 
Hurricane Ike affected 12,000 people in the islands and 
destroyed nearly 90 percent of the buildings on Grand 
Turk; 
Whereas Grand Turk and South Caicos, the 2 islands most 
dependent on tourism, were the worst hit by Hurricane 
Ike; 
Whereas Hurricane Ike damaged almost 80 percent of the 
houses on Great Inagua Islands in the Bahamas; 
Whereas Hurricanes Gustav and Ike and Tropical Storms 
Fay and Hanna also impacted the people of Cuba; 
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•HCON 17 IH 
Whereas Hurricane Gustav alone severely damaged an esti-
mated 53 percent of the houses in Cuba; 
Whereas Hurricane Gustav was the worst hurricane to hit 
Cuba in over 50 years; 
Whereas Hurricane Gustav displaced over 400,000 Cubans 
and damaged or destroyed 130,000 homes and caused se-
vere damage to infrastructure; 
Whereas Hurricane Ike affected the people of Cuba, causing 
4 deaths, displacing 55,700 people, and forcing over 
2,600,000 people to evacuate; 
Whereas the financial burden of providing emergency and re-
construction assistance to the devastated countries is 
much greater than the Caribbean community can sustain 
by themselves; 
Whereas the cost of providing emergency humanitarian as-
sistance to the Caribbean continues to increase with each 
passing natural disaster; 
Whereas in addition to needing disaster relief, Caribbean gov-
ernments are under pressure to secure their communities 
and prevent looters and other criminals from causing fur-
ther harm to their citizens who are struggling to recover 
from the devastation caused by the hurricanes; 
Whereas the United States Agency for International Develop-
ment Office of United States Foreign Disaster Assistance 
(OFDA) is coordinating with the United Nations Dis-
aster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC), the 
United Nations World Food Program, and the Inter-
national Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Soci-
eties (IFRC), to provide urgently needed food, potable 
water, temporary shelter, and other basic commodities; 
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•HCON 17 IH 
Whereas the series of hurricanes and tropical storms, which 
have ripped through the Caribbean, have again dem-
onstrated that properly promulgated and consistently en-
forced building and housing codes significantly reduce the 
human and financial toll that natural disasters wreck on 
countries; 
Whereas the Caribbean region is recognized as the third bor-
der of the United States, and the economic turmoil 
caused by the series of hurricanes and tropical storms in 
the Caribbean will have an effect on the United States; 
and 
Whereas the countries of the Caribbean will need significant 
assistance from the international community for relief 
and reconstruction efforts: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) expresses solidarity with all people affected 
by the 2008 hurricane season; 
(2) commends the governments of the countries 
of the Caribbean for their efforts to respond and as-
sist the people of the region after the devastation 
caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike and Tropical 
Storms Fay and Hanna from August to September 
2008; 
(3) commends the efforts of the Caribbean- 
American community to provide relief to family and 
friends suffering in the region; 
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•HCON 17 IH 
(4) supports the efforts of the Administration 
to assist in coordinating international humanitarian 
assistance to help the people of the Caribbean re-
gion, assess the damage, and provide relief to af-
fected communities, particularly in the Dominican 
Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Cuba, and 
Turks and Caicos; 
(5) urges the international community to take 
all necessary steps to provide emergency relief and 
support reconstruction efforts in the Caribbean re-
gion; 
(6) urges the President to continue to make 
available to nongovernmental organizations, private 
volunteer organizations, United Nations agencies, 
and regional institutions the necessary funding to 
help mitigate the effects of the recent natural disas-
ters that have devastated the countries of the Carib-
bean; and 
(7) urges the President, acting through the Ad-
ministrator of the United States Agency for Inter-
national Development, to provide assistance in co-
ordination with other donors to begin the reconstruc-
tion of the Caribbean countries that suffered heavy 
damage from the natural disasters of 2008 and to 
provide assistance for the governments of recipient 
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•HCON 17 IH 
Caribbean countries to promulgate and enforce rel-
evant housing and building codes. 
Æ 
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