UN announces aid package for Cuba in Sandy's wake

HAVANA (AP):The United Nations yesterday announced a humanitarian aid mission to eastern Cuba in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, saying it could end up being the most damaging storm to hit that part of the island in 50 years.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that it is coordinating with Cuban authorities to provide one month's food rations for nearly a half million people in and around Santiago, a city of about 500,000 people that was clobbered when Sandy came ashore as a category 2 hurricane on October 25.

WIDE-SCALE CROP DAMAGE

"We are especially concerned about the damage in the agricultural sector where tens of thousands of hectares of staple crops have been affected," WFP emergency coordinator William Vigil was quoted as saying. "Livestock facilities have also been seriously damaged, particularly in Santiago, and this humanitarian assistance will help people continue until production capacities are restored."

The government has estimated that more than 200,000 homes were damaged, and the WFP said that means more than one million people, about 10 per cent of the island's residents, were affected.

"Sandy is possibly the single most destructive hurricane experienced by eastern Cuba in the last 50 years," the WFP said.