Cuba leader Raul Castro says island 'hard hit' by Sandy

1 November 2012 Last updated at 18:29 GMT



Cuba leader Raul Castro says island 'hard hit' by Sandy



Santiago on 26 October 2012 Raul Castro said the city of Santiago looked

like it had been bombed.



Cuban President Raul Castro says the eastern province of Santiago was

"hard hit" by Hurricane Sandy.



Eleven people died and more than 188,000 homes were damaged as the storm

passed over Cuba last week.



President Castro said Cuba's second largest city, Santiago, looked like

it had been bombed.



He urged those affected not to lose hope and said that no one would be

left destitute, but that the government would have to weigh up each case.



"We'll get over this, you're fighting people, we've known that for more

than fifty years," he told residents of Santiago on a tour of the worst

affected areas.



"The reality is much worse than what you can see in the pictures or on

TV," President Castro said.



A United Nations report says that Sandy destroyed almost 100,000

hectares (245,000 acres) of crops in eastern Cuba.



"Sugar cane was the single hardest hit followed by plantain and

bananas," the report says.



Vice-President Jose Ramon Machado said one of the biggest problems

facing the government was guaranteeing food supplies for the people in

the affected areas in the the coming months.



Cuba does not produce enough food to feed its population and spends

large amounts of money on importing food.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20166773