CORTÉS, Cuba · Western Cuba's weary residents returned to their homes on Tuesday morning relieved to find that Hurricane Ivan had grazed sparsely populated rural areas and left isolated damage, surprising many who prepared for much greater harm.

No deaths or injuries were reported on Tuesday from the formidable Category 5 storm, in part because of large-scale evacuations of low-lying coastal areas.

"We are alive. The rest will be repaired," said Sonia Camejo, who lives in the humble fishing village of Cortés, 170 miles west of Havana, and which received much of the brunt of Ivan's 160 mph winds and strong storm surge.

Wooden homes along the coast were destroyed and furniture was reduced to piles of scrap wood soaked with seaweed.

In Cortés, many residents who had not yet fully recovered from two previous hurricanes in 2002 saw themselves starting from zero once again.

"It will be a long time until we have homes again," said Luis Izquierdo, 25, whose mother's wooden home was partially demolished by Ivan. Waves crashed into her home, taking several walls and leaving water marks more than 4 feet high.

"I took everything out of the house because [the meteorologists] said what was coming was the devil," said Izquierdo's mother, Elvira González, who, like many others, heeded the warnings and took most of her valuable possessions to a friend's house on higher ground.

In many parts of western Pinar del Rio province, power lines were down. Crews were brought from eastern parts of the island to assist in repairs.

Farmers scrambled to save fruit from snapped banana trees, and some fields were flooded.

Some tobacco drying sheds used to prepare the region's coveted cigars were demolished, but the industry's infrastructure remained largely intact. Planting season does not begin until next month, and seedlings were stored in warehouses.

Ivan ravaged Grenada and parts of Jamaica, but in Cuba the damage was minimal and limited to coastal areas.

Isais Baños, 42, a Cortés cafeteria worker, lost several walls in his wooden seaside home.

"To see what you have destroyed from one moment to the next is not easy," Baños said. As he surveyed the damage in his neighborhood, he was not sure how to begin rebuilding.

Hugo Olay, who lived in a 103-year-old wooden house in Cortés, lost almost the entire back wall of his living room. Inside, his cabinets and chairs were piled like a heap of scrap wood. Crabs clung to crevices in the walls.

Olay said he would rely on his mother and siblings, who live in Miami, to send money to help him to recover from the damage.

He lamented strict new travel restrictions imposed by the Bush administration that would prevent his relatives from visiting him.

"Let them know we are alive. They will be worried because there are no communications here," he said.

President Fidel Castro reiterated that he would not accept any hurricane aid from the United States. "We won't accept a penny from them," he said.

In the provincial capital of Pinar del Rio, residents were surprised to see that damage appeared to be minimal.

"We are so happy that hardly anything happened here," Zoraida Marrero, 37, a shopkeeper said as she walked with her family back to their rural home. On the southwest coast, Ivan's monstrous waves erased the beach along the tiny fishing village of Playa Las Canas. Roofs were torn from some wooden homes, and knee-high water filled structures closest to the sea. They remained empty Tuesday morning following evacuations.

No damage was seen in eastern parts of Pinar del Rio. After days of preparing for Hurricane Ivan, Havana returned to normal on Tuesday.

"We are so relieved," said Miguel Rivero, 42, a restaurant worker in Havana. "If it had come through here it would have been a true disaster."

Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.

Vanessa Bauzá can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com.

Copyright © 2004