Cuba evacuated nearly 1.9 million people facing the wrath of Hurricane Ivan with remarkable effectiveness.

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO AND NANCY SAN MARTIN

Cuba's state TV and radio monopoly was all Ivan all the time. Volunteers went door to door announcing evacuations for the Category 5 hurricane, and police followed them to enforce the order. President Fidel Castro, as always, went to the province most threatened -- before Ivan arrived.

In the end, Ivan barely brushed the westernmost province of Pinar del Río, destroying several homes, flooding some areas and knocking down power lines and trees but causing no deaths.

The country's evacuation of nearly 1.9 million people from coastal and flood-prone areas underlined the effectiveness of its hurricane preparedness -- partly because of its organization, partly because of the communist government's firm control over the lives of 11 million Cubans.

After 45 years of Castro rule, Cubans understand that the government has the last word. When state agents came, most people did not question the orders to evacuate, to open and staff shelters and ensure that displaced families were accounted for and fed.

What if the people don't want to leave their homes? a reporter asked a resident of Artemisa, just outside of Havana. She laughed. ''They have no choice,'' she said.

The Cuban government's first line of defense against hurricanes is the media, totally controlled by the state, from the three TV stations to dozens of radio stations and newspapers.

From the day that Ivan began pointing its eye toward Cuba, TV broadcast nonstop shows on the hurricane. Civil-defense officials announced preparations and meteorologists gave hurricane instruction every night before a classroom-like studio audience.

The result was that Cubans began stocking up on emergency supplies early and taking other precautions.

In all, the government moved 1.89 million people -- 17 percent of its citizens -- out of harm's way.

As civil defense officials announced evacuations, members of neighborhood watch groups went door to door making sure everyone knew. Then came the police, making sure everyone obeyed.

All along, civil defense officials and volunteers kept detailed lists of residents, those who were in shelters and those in neighbors' homes.

''We are well organized,'' said a civil defense representative at a shelter in Guanajay just outside Havana.

''We got very lucky,'' Melardo Quintero, 54, said as he made some minor adjustments on his thatched roof near the town of San Juan y Martínez in Pinar del Río.

But Castro, who repeatedly compared his government's preparations for Ivan to the island's long-standing preparations for a possible war with the United States, said it was more than luck. ''We've been preparing for this for 45 years,'' he told state television.