Hurricane Ike Hitting Cuba in 2008
by Mark in CubaWhen Hurricane Ike hit Cuba, it left parts of the country without water or electricity and there was a lot of damage in affected areas. It looked pretty bad and it didn’t help that Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba just 10 days prior to Ike. I‘ve seen pictures from parts of Cuba where Hurricane Ike wrecked havoc and it definitely made me reconsider my intentions to travel to Cuba in September.
Estimated damage done to Cuba by Category 4 Hurricane Ike was $4 Billion. Gustav added another $1 Billion of damages. Needless to say, Cuba was hit pretty badly. There was rubble in the streets and beaches looked like mess. Hurricane Ike didn’t mess around. I was safe in Canada and really felt sorry for Cubans to have had their lovely country destroyed by forces of nature like that. I had been in Cuba in my mind for months and really, really wanted to go in person. Hurricane Ike made the decision for me – I’m putting the trip off till November.
Following two months were torturous. When you look forward to something so much and it’s still two months away, every day drags forever and you never seem close enough. November is still considered somewhat within the hurricane season, but hurricanes are rare and not as strong. August and September are the worst in that regard (hence likely the worst for planning the trip to Cuba).
As a matter of fact, there was a hurricane that hit Cuba in November of 2008 – my projected month of visit to Cuba. Hurricane Paloma hit the west coast of Cuba and got as far as Sancti Spiritus, which is a city not far from Trinidad. It did cause power outages and knocked over communication tower, but it was nothing compared to Hurricane Ike (or Gustav for that matter). Most of Cuba was unaffected by Hurricane Paloma making November of 2008 an OK month for a trip to Cuba.
Hurricane Ike made me strike September from my 2 item list of available months for my epic trip to Cuba. November was more or less outside of the initial scoop. I originally wanted to have my trip finalized before November 4th 2008 – the date of US presidential elections. I knew I had to visit Cuba before there’s a change in the Oval Office of the US White House and November 4th was my original deadline. Because of various reasons describes before this post, I did not make it. However it still worked out just fine as November 4th deadline was just my original goal, but the primary purpose – to visit Cuba before it changes was not threatened by the election of new US president. Luckily, getting elected is just the first step. New prez still needs to officially take over the office and assume his/her tasks before they are able to cancel US embargo against Cuba. I still has some time, but this time around I had my credit card at the ready to buy the first flight from Edmonton to Varadero that seemed anywhere within the reasonable range. That’s when I found out about Sunwing.
