Perilous
Times
Haitian tent cities brace for huge tropical storm
by Staff Writers
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Aug 3, 2011
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in squalid makeshift
camps hunkered down Wednesday as lashing rain and wind from the
outer bands of Tropical Storm Emily hit the quake-stricken
country.
US weather experts warned of "torrential rain" and
"life-threatening flash floods and mud slides" once the brunt of
Emily reaches Haiti early Thursday, compounding the misery for the
impoverished Caribbean nation still recovering from a January 2010
earthquake.
Some 300,000 Haitians still living in makeshift camps almost 19
months after the quake may have to battle up to 20 inches (50
centimeters) of rain cascading down muddy, denuded hillsides.
Haitian officials have raised a red alert and called for the
evacuations of tent cities at risk, many perched on hillsides long
since stripped bare of any trees, chopped down to use as fuel and
building materials.
Authorities were spreading the word and "are asking people in
refugee camps... to evacuate vulnerable locations," said Haiti's
civil defense chief Alta Jean-Baptiste.
Haiti's weather service chief Ronald Semelfort warned Emily would
be "a great danger for the country still fragile from the January
2010 earthquake."
At 2100 GMT, the center of Emily was some 203 miles (326
kilometers) south-east of the Haitian city of Les Cayes, the
Miami-based National Hurricane Center reported.
The storm was packing winds of nearly 50 miles (85 kilometers) per
hour, with higher gusts, and was moving at a speed of nearly 14
miles (22 kilometers) per hour.
"On this track, the center of Emily will cross the southwestern
peninsula of Haiti early Thursday and then over extreme eastern
Cuba Thursday night," the NHC said.
Emily is forecast to dump between six and 12 inches (15 and 30
centimeters) with isolated amounts of up to 20 inches (51)
possible over Haiti and its wealthier eastern neighbor, the
Dominican Republic, with which it shares the island of Hispaniola,
the NHC said.
"Some weakening is possible as Emily interacts with the high
terrain of Haiti and eastern Cuba," the NHC said. "Some
re-strengthening is possible when the cyclone moves over the
Bahamas."
Coastal areas were warned of a storm surge which will raise water
levels by one to two feet and be "accompanied by large and
dangerous waves."
Shipping was banned along Haiti's the southern coast as the storm
approached,, and Semelfort said "all Haiti's regions will be
affected by the tropical storm Emily."
Haiti is still recovering from the devastating 2010 quake, which
killed an estimated 300,000 people. The country has also been
battling an outbreak of cholera, which caused 6,000 deaths and
363,117 diagnosed cases.
A team of Cuban doctors in Haiti were on standby Wednesday to
prevent any further outbreaks of the water-borne disease.
"People living in unsafe housing will be the worst affected if
flooding hits," said Harry Donsbach, the earthquake response
director in Haiti for the Christian charity group World Vision.
"Landslides are of course a threat, but even simply heavy rain has
the potential to worsen the volatile sanitation conditions in
camps, which, with cholera still prevalent in Haiti, is a serious
concern," Donsbach said in a statement.
In the Dominican Republic, a maximum red alert has been sounded
across six provinces, and all water and outdoor leisure activities
suspended.
Mandatory evacuations were declared in a dozen villages near dams,
and Dominican officials urged residents to take precautions in
other areas.
"Residents in high-risk areas, who live next to rivers, streams
and creeks... should take precautions and be aware of the
recommendations of the relief agencies," the government's office
of emergency services said.
The tropical storm warning was also in effect for eastern Cuba,
the central Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos islands, US weather
experts said.
In Cuba, the national Institute of Meteorology said to expect
heavy rain from Emily in the far eastern part of the island by
Thursday afternoon.
In the Pacific Ocean, meanwhile, Hurricane Eugene strengthened to
a category four storm far off Mexico's western coast, but was
heading away from land towards the north-west and into the open
sea.