Cuba
So Hurricane Dennis. The first hurricane in the Gulf in July since the 1930s. Who'd have thought we really had anything to worry about when we were planning our trip to Cuba? Even when people jokingly told me maybe a hurricane would hit there after our trip got cancelled, I thought, yeah right. Maybe in August or September... not a chance in July.
Not only did it hit, the eye went directly over Niquero, the town we were supposed to visit. My heart breaks for everyone in that town, and I thank God (though I don't understand why) we were in DC and not there. Here is the account from the Miami Herald as it pertains to Niquero...
Most of the worst damage was reported in the southeastern provinces of Granma and Santiago, brushed by Dennis Friday as it headed northwest toward Havana and later moved into the Gulf of Mexico early Saturday.
More than 15,000 houses that made up 76 percent of the houses in the Granma towns of Niquero and Pilón were totally or partially destroyed by the storm's 150 mph winds, according to reports in the main provincial newspaper, La Demajagua.
Heavy winds also toppled a radio and television tower in Pilón, and some 50,000 residents from the area of Niquero, Manzanillo were evacuated to shelters, the Girón newspaper in neighboring Matanzas province reported.
A Communist Party official in Granma province reported to Castro Friday in Cabo Cruz, a coastal town of 128 homes, that only 11 remained standing. In Pilón, with 8,300 homes, 6,000 were damaged or destroyed. And in Niquero, 9,420 of the 11,776 homes were damaged, the official said.