Community-Based Disaster Preparedness

Cuba has achieved a striking preparedness record attributed to a mandatory, government-organized civil defense system that conducts regular evacuation drills, designates specific neighbors and buildings responsible for helping the elderly or disabled evacuate, and orders large-scale, disciplined evacuations well ahead of an approaching hurricane's landfall; when Hurricane Ivan threatened the island in September 2004, Cuban authorities evacuated an estimated 1.9 to 2 million people, and independent researchers, including a widely cited 2004 Oxfam America case study, have pointed to Cuba's community-level organization, rather than superior technology, as the central factor behind its comparatively low hurricane death tolls relative to countries facing similar storms.