A road in the coastal town of Boca de Galafre, Cuba, is flooded and covered in seaweed as Hurricane Wilma runs past Cuba, Sunday. Wilma's heavy rains thrashed Cuba's tobacco-growing Pinar del Rio province as the storm roared through the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. Cuba's government evacuated a half-million people from low-lying areas. - REUTERS
HAVANA (AP):
SCUBA DIVING teams in inflatable rafts pulled nearly 250 people from their flooded homes early yesterday after massive waves churned by Hurricane Wilma flooded the capital's Malecon coastal highway and adjacent neighbourhoods of old, crumbling buildings.
The communist-government's Revolutionary Armed Forces was also using amphibious vehicles to rescue people whose homes were inundated by more than a meter (yard) of water when the ocean penetrated Havana's coast by more than four large city blocks.
"We're amazed," resident Laura Gonzalez-Cueto said as she watched divers transporting small groups of people in the black inflatable rafts with outboard motors.
"Since early today, the water has come all the way up to Linea and Paseo," said Gonzalez-Cueto, referring to a major thoroughfare four blocks from the coast now under more than one metre of water.
RESCUED FROM FLOODED COASTAL HOMES
As of mid-morning, 244 people, including some children, had been rescued from flooded coastal homes, said municipal official Mayra Lassale. Havana Mayor Juan Contino was with rescue workers in an inflatable raft at the scene of some of the worst flooding.
Although the Malecon and adjacent neighbourhoods often flood some during storms, the extent of the flooding seen Monday after Wilma's assault was highly unusual and reportedly occurs only when hurricanes pass along Cuba's northern coast.
The outer bands of Wilma also flooded evacuated communities along the island's southern coast over the weekend after the hurricane clobbered Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
Flooding and high winds caused heavy damage to homes in the northern coastal community of Baracoa, just east of Havana.
Throughout the capital, downed trees, branches, and other debris littered streets and highways.
In the Port of Mariel east of Havana, residents gathered outside homes to watch in awe as huge angry waves several metres (yards) high rolled in one after another. Part of a concrete retaining wall protecting the city from the ocean had crumbled, but otherwise no major damage was evident.
"Last night was really tense, just waiting for what might happen," said Joelsis Calderin, 30. "I've never seen waves like this. You have to respect the sea."
