Castro likens Gustav to nuclear bomb

Fidel Castro is likening Hurricane Gustav’s destruction in Cuba to a nuclear explosion.

He suggests the storm will cost the government “30 or 40 times” more than €61m in losses.

In an essay published today, the 82-year-old former president wrote that television footage of the devastation on Isla de la Juventud off the country’s mainland reminded him of “the desolation I saw when I visited Hiroshima.”

Gustav slammed into Isla de la Juventud on Saturday, then crossed the western mainland of Cuba before heading back to the Gulf of Mexico and the US.

Cuba says 100,000 homes across the island were damaged, thousands beyond repair.

Authorities evacuated 476,000 Cubans and there were only 19 injuries and no reported deaths.