BY Sandra Hernandez
Staff Writer

Camacho, CUBA · Adonis Yero Perez stood in front of the pile of metal sheets, wooden boards and branches that used to be his home and wondered how to rebuild the place he spent five years constructing.

"I don't know where my wife and children will spend the night or where we will live," said Perez, 33, who lives about 20 miles south of downtown Havana. "I have very little and now even less. Tomorrow I have to go back to work because if I miss a day of work then what will my family eat? And now we don't even have a place to sleep."

Perez was among the thousands of Cubans who spent Friday trying to clean up the mess left by Hurricane Charley as it raked this island nation of 11 million tearing off roofs, downing power lines and toppling hundreds of trees. The storm pushed across the southwestern part of Cuba cutting a path through dozens of small towns like Camacho and eventually moving into the city of Havana.

Cuban government officials reported three people were killed as a result of the storms and several injured.

At least 65 buildings in Havana neighborhoods collapsed overnight, and more than 500 buildings throughout the capital were affected, civil defense authorities said.

But for many Cubans the storm didn't bring the damage many feared.

"We are alive and I can't complain," said Regla Jimenez, 39, who worried the strong winds would topple her wooden shack in Old Havana. "We are lucky the rains weren't as heavy because it didn't cause the flooding."

Some of Jimenez's neighbors, however, suffered more damage when nearby buildings began to collapse.

"The building next door started crumbling around 2 am and bricks started falling," said Enrique Rivero, 62, pointing to about a dozen bricks that came crashing through his first floor home in old Havana. "My kids and I were lucky. We were in another room because someone could have been hurt or killed."

Charley's arrival coincided with Cuban Leader Fidel Castro's birthday. Castro, 78, made a visit to the national Meteorology Institute, where he congratulated residents of the island for braving the storm. His remarks were broadcast over state-run TV.

Before reaching Cuba, Charley drenched Jamaica, where one man died. Byron Barret, 32, a farmer, died Wednesday night trying to trying to rescue six people from rising flood waters in St. Elizabeth parish, officials said.

Only minimal damage was reported in the Cayman Islands, where Charley hit earlier Thursday when it was a much weaker Category 1 storm, with winds at 90 mph.

Material from The Associted Press contributed to this report. Sandra Hernandez can be reached at smhernandez@sun-sentinel.com or 954 356 4514.

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