UPDATE 1-Cubans pick up pieces amid Gustav destruction

(Recasts; adds quotes, details; changes dateline from Havana)

By Jeff Franks

PASO QUEMADO, Cuba, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Her pigs and some government help will be her salvation, Evangelina Torres said on Sunday as she looked up from her living room at the open sky that is her new roof.

The day before, she and her family had huddled under the kitchen sink for survival while Hurricane Gustav blew through western Cuba with 150 mile per hour (240 kph) winds and shredded her rustic home.

The roof went first, then the ferocious wind and rain whipped through for hours, leaving everything in a state of wet chaos.

"I shouted and I wept," she said, describing her reactions while hanging on to her husband for dear life. "It was pure terror for I don't know how long."

Miraculously, only the roof over her small kitchen remained in place, and that would be the starting point for recovering her pre-storm life.

"We'll rebuild the roof from there. I sell pigs and little by little, I'll save enough money from them to replace it. With a little government help, we can make it," said Torres, 58.

Her tale of terror and damage was shared by thousands of people in the path of Gustav, which left a panorama of destruction after it ripped through the western province of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth 40 miles (60 km) out in the Caribbean Sea.