Hurricane Paloma demolished the homes of thousands of Cubans, though the storm moved off the coast on Monday. The hurricane washed out fishing villages, ripped the roofs off factories and ravaged roads, but the government reported that no one was killed. Paloma, which struck as a Category 4 hurricane Saturday night, hit Cuba. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the remains of Paloma were hanging off the north coast of central Cuba on Monday, and that the storm was not expected to regain force. State media reported that in Camaguey province, which includes Santa Cruz del Sur, nearly 200,000 people had been evacuated to shelters or waited out the storm with neighbors or relatives. All but 59,000 had headed home by Monday morning. Cuba already is struggling to recover from major Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which tore through the island barely a week apart in late August and early September. They caused about $9.4 billion in damage, smashing nearly half a million homes and destroying almost a third of the island's crops. Cuba hesitated to take American offers of aid after Gustav and Ike. Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura said the country would take the same position if Washington pledged more help after Paloma.
