Reuters

HAVANA, Aug. 16 -- City workers distributed water in tank trucks Monday and urged about 1.4 million residents of the Cuban capital who had no running water to remain calm, four days after Hurricane Charley roared through the area.

A government official in a car fitted with loudspeakers urged residents to conserve water and said it could take several days to restore services to the 70 percent of the city with no water.

The Aguas de La Habana water company said the hurricane had disrupted power supplies needed to pump water into the city. Engineers worked to rebuild eight high-voltage towers knocked down by Charley outside a thermoelectric power plant at the port of Mariel that feeds Havana and the western province of Pinar del Rio.

Charley hit Cuba with 105-mph winds, killing four people and damaging 40,000 homes when it barreled through Havana province and the western side of Havana Friday.

© 2004