Cuban capital remains without power after hurricane

HAVANA (AFP) Aug 14, 2004
Hurricane Charley became the most destructive tropical storm to hit Cuba's western Havana Province since 1915, killing four, damaging 11,000 homes and knocking down hundreds of power line polls, Civil Defense officials said Saturday.

Another 5,000 homes were damaged in the rest of Cuba and the western province of Pinar del Rio lost power.

Traveling south to north, the hurricane cut its destructive swath through Havana Province in just two hours on Friday.

The storm damaged 502 schools and 22 health centers in Pinar del Rio and Havana provinces, officials said.

Residents in the capital, Havana, were still without power, which authorities were promising to restore to 80 percent of the city Sunday.

National and international flights resumed at Havana's main airport, despite damage to the control tower.

After Cuba, Hurrican Charley hit southwestern Florida, destroying thousands of homes, leaving more than one million people without power and hundreds of thousands without water.

TERRA.WIRE