HAITI - Hurricane Season 2008 - UPDATES

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                                          Storm death toll in Haiti exceeds 500:






UN
20 minutes ago

Sept. 5, 2008
 

ZURICH (AFP) - The death toll in Haiti from Tropical Storm Hanna has exceeded 500 and is growing

by the hour, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Saturday.


 
"The toll is increasing hourly," an OCHA official told AFP, adding that "according to information from the government (in Port-au-Prince) we have reached more than 500 deaths."

Previous reports said at least 163 people had been killed during the passage of Hanna, which deluged Haiti early this week just eight days after Hurricane Gustav caused around 77 deaths.

Tropical Storm Fay two weeks ago killed another 40 people in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas with 70 percent of its people living in poverty and mountainous terrain prone to mudslides.

The worst-hit city was Gonaives, Haiti's third largest, which was flooded after being hit by Hanna Monday and Tuesday, leaving some 200,000 people with little food or water since the storm.

Haiti had pleaded for emergency international aid after the late-summer conga line of storms laid waste to parts of Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.

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                             Aid slowly reaching hurricane-battered Haiti as toll mounts





by Clarens Renois
Fri Sep 5, 2008
 
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - International emergency aid was providing a tentative lifeline to hundreds of thousands of displaced Haitians without food or water who faced "catastrophic" conditions after a trio of fierce storms devastated the impoverished nation.

 
Several tons of critically needed relief supplies were trickling in Friday to hard-hit communities in a country where at least 163 people have been killed by Tropical Storm Hanna, which deluged Haiti early this week just eight days after Gustav caused some 77 deaths.

Tropical Storm Fay two weeks ago killed another 40 people in the country.

The worst-hit city was Gonaives, Haiti's third largest and on the northwest coast, which was flooded after being hit by Hanna Monday and Tuesday, leaving some 200,000 people with little food or water since the storm.

Senator Yuri Latortue, who represents Gonaives, called the situation "catastrophic."

"I know perfectly well that the hurricane season has hit our entire country, but the situation in Gonaives is truly special, because now some 200,000 people there haven't eaten in three days," he said.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) earlier this week began flying helicopter to Gonaives to rescue those stranded by the high water.

At least 119 of the Hanna deaths occured in the northern Artibonite region, where Gonaives is located, civil protection officials said.

Haiti's Senate voted late Thursday to declare a state of emergency in the city, 152 kilometers (94 miles) north of Port-au-Prince.

A boat docked Friday at Gonaives carrying UN World Food Programme (WFP) supplies including food, drinking water and hygiene kits for thousands who were displaced by the latest storm.

"WFP has first-rate logistics, and this storm is putting us to the test," WFP representative in Haiti Myrta Kaulard said, adding that the agency was "anticipating further emergency needs from approaching storms."

Haiti had pleaded for emergency international aid after the conga line of storms laid waste to parts of Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.

"The United Nations is in the process of launching an emergency international appeal," Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Geneva.

Switzerland promised aid worth one million Swiss francs (901,000 dollars) and the US Agency for International Development has allocated 100,000 dollars to help the impoverished Caribbean republic, OCHA said.

In Brussels, the European Commission launched "fast-track" aid action for two million euros to provide relief for Haitians, the EU's executive arm said.

The Red Cross said it launched an urgent appeal Friday for 2.3 million euros (3.4 million dollars) for Haiti.

Thousands of Red Cross volunteers "are working round the clock" to help the mounting number of victims, the organization said in a statement.

Mountainous Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas with more than 70 percent of the population in poverty, is especially prone to flash-flooding and mudslides. Haitians have cut down most trees and bushes to make cooking fires, which causes erosion and worsens flooding.

The airport in the capital Port-au-Prince reopened Wednesday, allowing a group of UN experts to evaluate the extent of the damage.

"Nine out of 10 regions in Haiti were seriously affected as a result of the double impact of the tropical storms Gustav and Hanna," OCHA said.

Michele Pierre-Louis, Haiti's new prime minister approved Friday to take office after four months of political standstill, now will have to manage a grim humanitarian crisis.

President Rene Preval said he was distressed by events and urged the international community to rally to Haiti's aid.

The Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) has sent five tonnes of aid, including emergency kits and tarpaulins.

France was sending a ship to Haiti with a helicopter aboard to help with search and rescue operations and channelling aid to the hardest hit areas. Spain also was sending four jetloads of humanitarian aid to Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica.

Meanwhile Hurricane Ike was forecast to spare Haiti as it plowed across the Atlantic and into the Bahamas, US National Hurricane Center forecaster Karina Castillo said in Miami.

"At least for now" Haiti looks likely to be spared yet another hit, she said, adding that Ike may graze northeastern Cuba.

Ike is forecast to then make landfall in south Florida on Wednesday as a major hurricane.

Densely populated south Florida, including the cities of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, has not been hit by a major hurricane since devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew was the costliest natural disaster in US history until it was topped by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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                                                 Haiti death toll passes 600





by Isabel Sanchez
AFP
SEPT. 8, 2008
 
HAVANA (AFP) - Hurricane Ike raged across Cuba on Monday with torrential rain and winds as Haiti struggled with a growing humanitarian crisis after four hurricanes in four weeks.
 
Cuba carried out mass evacuations of residents and tourists before Ike -- the second hurricane in less than a week after Gustav -- made landfall at Punta Lucrecia on the eastern coast and then weakened slightly.

More than 800,000 people were moved away from coastal areas eastern Cuba and more than 9,000 foreign tourists were moved out of the resort of Varadero.

"In all of Cuba's history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together," lamented the head of Cuba's meteorological service, Jose Rubiera, on state television.

At 0900 GMT, the eye of storm was 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Camaguey and moving west, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

Still packing winds of near 105 miles (165 kilometers) an hour with higher gusts, the US National Hurrican Center said Ike was a category two storm, down from a three on the five level Saffir-Simpson scale.

The center said a further weakening was possible while it was over land.

"It's raining heavily here and power has been cut since early at night," Alvaro Cruz, a resident of the city of Holguin, told AFP in a telephone interview.

Ike plowed across the Turks and Caicos as a powerful Category Four storm late Saturday, causing injuries and extensive damage on the British territory and tourist haven, before weakening.

The hurricane raked the Bahamas island of Great Inagua, toppling trees, blowing off roofs, causing an island-wide power failure and forcing many of its 1,000 people to seek emergency refuge.

The main concern is now in Haiti , where four storms in three weeks have killed at least 600 people and left hundreds of thousands in desperate need of food, clean water and shelter.

Officials continued aid operations in the flood-stricken town of Gonaives, devastated by flooding from Tropical Storm Hanna. Another 47 people perished in the village of Cabaret, near Port-au-Prince, in flooding caused by Ike, officials said.

"Many homes were destroyed in Cabaret, and we have seen some bodies of children in the water," a journalist for UN radio who spent the night on the roof of his house told AFP.

Hundreds of bodies were found in Gonaives, a town of 350,000 in northwestern Haiti, after a five-meter (16-foot) wall of water and mud engulfed much of the town.

UN peacekeepers on Saturday evacuated several thousand residents from Gonaives, a local official said, but thousands more are still awaiting relief.

Some 650,000 Haitians have been affected by the flooding, including 300,000 children, and the task of delivering crucial aid has been complicated by dismal transport conditions, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Officials said 200,000 people were without food and clean water, many for four days.

"What has happened here is unimaginable," member of parliament Pierre-Gerome Valcine told AFP from Cabaret, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital.

Massive flooding over the past week in the poorest country in the Americas has triggered a humanitarian crisis that was worsening by the day.

Pope Benedict XVI said special prayers for the stricken country.

"I want to remember the dear population of Haiti, greatly distressed in recent days by passing hurricanes," Benedict told pilgrims on the Italian island of Sardinia.

More stormy weather hampered relief efforts Sunday. Heavy rains brought down a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to Gonaives.

The bridge gave way at the town of Mirebalais in central Haiti, forcing three trucks loaded with emergency supplies and bound for Saint-Marc, where thousands of desperate refugees from Gonaives were crowding into shelters, to turn back, according to a World Food Programme official.

Many bridges in other areas of Haiti have also collapsed, homes have been washed away and crops ravaged.

Ike was expected to eventually careen past Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and sweep toward Louisiana and the storm-battered city of New Orleans as early as Tuesday.

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                                          Haiti Gets No Mercy From Hanna, Ike






By KATHIE KLARREICH /
 MIAMI

1 hour, 18 minutes ago

Sept. 9, 2008
 
The media profile of this season's hurricanes grows with their proximity to the U.S. mainland, but by the time they reach American soil they often have already delivered their harshest punishments - on those least able to cope. When Faye and Gustav hit Haiti last month, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere began searching for a humanitarian lifeline. Then came Hanna, dumping more than nine feet of water on Gonaives, the resource-starved country's second largest city. Last week, Ike delivered the knockout blow, swallowing the bridges and roads that provided humanitarian access to the worst-hit areas. Eight of the country's 10 geographic departments have been flooded, hundreds of Haitians are dead, tens of thousands are homeless, and hundreds of thousands are cut off from humanitarian aid.
 
Haitian President Rene Preval could not have done anything to head off the devastation, but he could have eased what will be the country's most extensive recovery process. According to the U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for security operations in Central and South American and the Caribbean, funding was approved two years ago for an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and last year for a Disaster Relief Warehouse (DRW) in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Those projects are at a standstill, however, because the Haitian government has not granted Southcom title to the land on which it which the $906,000 facilities are to be built. A contractor for the EOC has been chosen, and money earmarked to equip the DRW with shelving, pallet jacks, forklifts, a database. "But without the land title we can't commit the resources," said Southcom Colonel William Costello "It's like buying furniture before you build the house."


Southcom has built many such centers throughout the Caribbean. When Gustav hit Jamaica last month, that country needed little outside assistance because it already had two DRWs and an EOC in place. Had President Preval prioritized Southcom's proposal, Haiti could be pulling cots, blankets, food and water from its own warehouse instead of relying on the U.S.S Kearsarge, the International Red Cross, the United Nations and others.

(See photos of Hurricane Gustav here).


As things stand, it may be days before anyone can evacuate citizens, get food and water distributed nationally, and remove bloated bodies. The country is no better equipped today than it was four years ago when Tropical Storm Jeanne killed more than 3,000 and displaced more than 200,000. CARE alone removed 114,000 metric tons of debris and mud from that storm, and distributed 2,200 tons of food and 110,000 half-liter bags of water. The damage from this year's storms is much more severe.


Haiti's political instability has imperiled efforts at disaster preparation. The revolving door of governments in the last 20 years continued five months ago when riots sparked by rising food and fuel prices toppled the most recent incumbents; it was only last week that parliament ratified Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis as Prime Minister. Her first order of business will be humanitarian relief. Two months ago the Family Early Warning Systems Network (composed of USAID, the European Union, FAO and the World Food Program) predicted that nearly half of Haiti's population - or some 4 million people - could face a food crisis by December. And that was before the deluge that flooded the country's breadbasket.

(See photos of Haiti Under Fire here.)


Pierre-Louis will be required to show extraordinary leadership skills if she is to turn a divided congress into a proactive and effective vehicle for crisis management. And she faces the challenge of rooting out the endemic corruption that gives pause to donor governments considering aid to Haiti. "If Pierre-Louis can attack corruption, she might be able to get far more assistance," said Haitian analyst Jocelyn McCalla, president of JMC Strategies, "and be more effective than her predecessors."


But she inherits the reins of power amid a catastrophic situation in which hundreds more people could die within the next few weeks, and possibly thousands more. There are, after all, still more than 11 weeks left of the hurricane season.


View this article on Time.com

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                                 Food aid arrives in Haiti, but delivery is still difficult






By Jonathan M. Katz
and Alexandra Olson
Fri Sep 12, 2008
 
Gonaives, Haiti - Food and fresh water ran dangerously low on Thursday for thousands in the flood-stricken Haitian city of Gonaives, as governments and aid groups struggled to get aid to people.
 
Shipments of food and pledges of more are pouring in from around the world. But the distribution of the emergency supplies was hampered by the impoverished country's chronic insecurity and the poor and often nonexistent network of roads and other infrastructure.

"The availability of food is not an issue," said Myrta Kaulard, a representative of the UN World Food Program. "Access, yes, is an issue."

UN peacekeepers have been handing out water and high-protein biscuits throughout Gonaives, which is still largely underwater after successive hits from one tropical storm and three hurricanes. But they have had to switch to distributing only at night to avoid causing a riot among desperate citizens.

A US Navy ship, the USS Kearsarge, arrived off the coast Sunday evening with amphibious boats and helicopters capable of resolving some of the logistical problems. But hurricane Ike delayed the vessel's arrival to the capital, Port-au-Prince, until late the next day, and its helicopters spent two days trying to find a safe spot to land in Gonaives.

Amphibious boats and helicopters from the Kearsarge have since delivered more than 85 metric tons of rice, beans, and flour to the city. But the rice cannot be sent to shelters until the UN World Food Program sends in culinary kits to cook it, said Vicky Delore Ndjeuga, a UN spokesman for the mission in Gonaives.

The slow pace of the aid was evident in Gonaives. At least 326 people In Haiti have been killed in several storms. Nine people have already died in shelters with little supplies or organization.

Floodwaters from hurricane Ike receded to ankle-level in many parts of the city, allowing more hungry and injured people to make their way to a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders. "People are suffering from a lack of water and food," said Efrain Fajardo, an orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Fajardo said the hospital was running out of fuel for generators, bandages, and cotton swaths.

The crisis in Gonaives developed through a sequence of events, from a last-minute change in tropical storm Hanna's course to the onslaught of hurricane Ike just as relief supplies started to get through.

On Wednesday the United Nations appealed for nearly $108 million more in disaster relief for some 800,000 people.

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                                        After hurricane Ike, Haiti copes with aid delays






By Reed Lindsay
Mon Sep 15, 2008
 
GONAIVES, HAITI - Before hurricane Ike hit, Haitians were already suffering from skyrocketing food prices that sparked nationwide protests and forced out the prime minister in April.
 
Now, nearly two weeks after a muddy deluge killed more than 100 and left tens of thousands homeless in this city, hunger is rampant as humanitarian aid is delayed and prices soar even higher.

"The water took everything we had," says Rosemarie Pierre, who has been living on the second floor of Gonaives's cathedral with her son and four grandchildren since losing her home to tropical storm Hanna. "Some neighbors gave us food. But it's not enough."

Four years ago, tropical storm Jeanne killed some 3,000 people in this city and the surrounding area. The death toll from Hanna has not been as high, but Gonaives residents and aid workers say that in many ways the devastation has been worse.

And Hanna was followed by Ike, flooding Gonaives for the second time in a week and destroying a bridge that represented the last land route into the city.

"It has been a nightmare getting food to Gonaives," says Raphael Chuinard, an official for the United Nation's World Food Program, who is overseeing the emergency food distribution.

But the biggest stumbling block to delivering aid, according to Rene Wagemans, who is coordinating the UN's relief efforts, has been avoiding violence. "We feel tension rising," says Ms. Wagemans. "The last thing we want are riots during the distribution."

Aid hand-outs had been limited to bottled water and high-energy biscuits, but on Thursday, the UN began delivering rice, beans, and oil to the city's shelters aimed at feeding people for two weeks.

"The situation is improving," says Mr. Chuinard. "The social tension has really gone down and the streets are getting back to normal."

This weekend, Hollywood star Matt Damon arrived with Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean to hand out rice, beans, and cooking oil in Cabaret, a town that saw 60 people die in flash floods. In 2005, Mr. Jean established the Y??le Haiti foundation, providing aid, arts and sports programs, and scholarships for thousands of schoolchildren. Both celebrities urged people to help the UN raise more than $100 million needed for food and supplies.

"We've only seen the beginning of this crisis," says Max Cosci, of Doctors Without Borders, which is running one of four small health centers in Gonaives.

Mr. Cosci says most of those wounded during the impact of the flooding have been treated, but he is now beginning to see patients with other illnesses.

The flow of aid should ease as floodwaters in Gonaives descend and the road from Port-au-Prince is reopened, which could happen in the coming days. But greater challenges loom.

"Long-term solutions are very complicated," says Yolene Surena, who heads the government's relief efforts in Gonaives. She proposes launching major infrastructure projects, strictly enforcing building codes, and even building a "new city" on higher ground.

But these are lofty plans for a cash-strapped government and international donors perpetually preoccupied with insecurity and political tumult in Port-au-Prince.

Catastrophic flooding in recent years has been a result of widespread deforestation, as hills have been left bare by poor farmers whose only source of income is making charcoal. But investing in small-scale agriculture to dissuade peasants from cutting down trees has long been at the bottom of the list of priorities for the government and its foreign backers.

In the wake of the uprising against rising food prices in April, President Ren?? Pr??val vowed to boost national production, and donors announced new plans to invest in the agricultural sector, especially in the fertile rice-growing region of the Artibonite, of which Gonaives is the capital.

But these projects will likely be set back, as the recent string of storms have destroyed crops throughout the country and caused flooding of the Artibonite's rice fields.

As often happens in Haiti, tackling the root of the problem has taken a back seat to facing the latest crisis.

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                                     Haiti could face new food crisis after storms






By Matthew Bigg
Sept. 15, 2008
 
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti faces a deepening crisis after storms destroyed much of the impoverished country's rice crop, sparking fears of a repeat of the deadly food riots earlier this year that brought down the government.
 
The storms killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands out of their homes in the port city of Gonaives. The city is the capital of the country's rice bowl region of Artibonite, which suffered severe storm damage.

Charity Christian Aid estimates that roughly one third of the country's 60,000-ton annual production of rice may have been ruined by floods.

Farm tools, seeds to plant next year's crop, livestock that farmers live off and irrigation systems vital for rice production were also destroyed.

The damage is all the more serious because it came at harvest time. The losses will be most keenly felt by the poorest farmers, who plant and harvest later and who lack the capital to reinvest.

It could also have a big impact on the overall food economy.

"There could be price disruptions that could cause unrest and a situation similar to that in April. The population could get really frustrated," said Prospery Raymond, the representative of Christian Aid in Haiti.

Food is a sensitive political issue in the Caribbean nation, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Malnutrition is rampant in Haiti, where many people live on less than $2 a day.

Riots in April over an increase in food prices killed at least five people, including a member of the U.N. peacekeeping force, and collapsed the government of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, an ally of President Rene Preval.

The soaring cost of rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples was caused by grains being diverted into ethanol production, a growing demand for meat as India and China became wealthier, high global oil prices and, to some extent, market speculation. But in Haiti many people blamed the government.

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PRODUCTION SLASHED



Less than two decades ago, Haiti was almost self-sufficient in rice production. In the mid-1990s, the country slashed tariffs on imported rice in response to pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

As a result, cheap subsidized rice from the United States came to dominate the market, causing national production to plummet, according to a report in June by the British-based aid agency Oxfam.

"Haiti is now importing 80 percent of the rice it consumes just as world prices have doubled," the report said.

Critics argue that international lending organizations helped worsen hunger in Haiti by pursuing free market policies that undermined domestic rice production and turned the country into a market for U.S. rice.

Supporters of trade liberalization say there is little alternative and it is the best way to transform the country's economy after decades of mismanagement and dictatorships.

A combination of measures would be needed to mitigate the damage done to this year's harvest and to prevent steep price rises, said Raymond.

The market should step up imports and humanitarian organizations should help with targeted food aid. But aid should not replace domestic, commercial production of food.

At the same time, remittances from overseas, a key source of income for the country, need to increase, he said.

"Food aid must be calibrated. If not, it will play havoc with the market and the farmers (and) it will affect domestic production," Raymond said.



(Editing by Michael Christie and Ross Colvin)

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                                              Haiti's food crisis deepens after floods






By JONATHAN M. KATZ,
Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 19, 2008
 
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Four tropical storms have wiped out most of Haiti's food crops and damaged irrigation systems and pumping stations, raising the specter of acute hunger for millions in the impoverished country.
 
"The system of agriculture has been destroyed," Agriculture Minister Joanas Gue told The Associated Press. Aid agencies and diplomats also say Haiti desperately needs help to avert mass hunger.

Emergency aid has flowed in to people directly affected by Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, storms that triggered flooding and killed at least 425 people in less than a month, including 194 in the critical rice-growing Artibonite Valley.

But the United Nations has raised less than 2 percent of a critical $108 million fundraising appeal, said Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the world body's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Another $18 million has been pledged but not delivered.

And much, much more is needed, with farms damaged or destroyed across the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

"This will take billions of dollars. This is not something small," U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Henrietta Fore told AP.

Schools that were supposed to open in early September are still filled with refugees fighting over scraps of food aid. Much of Gonaives, the nation's fourth largest city, remains flooded and without electricity. Malaria and other diseases are beginning to spread.

"The scope of this is frankly unimaginable in many countries," said U.S. Ambassador Janet Sanderson. "A lot of the progress of the last couple of years has been swept away by these waters."

The U.S. government is sending $29 million in food aid and humanitarian assistance, and countries like Colombia have airlifted food and clothing. U.N. agencies have delivered food to more than 240,000 people, aided by soldiers of its 9,000-strong peacekeeping force and military ships like the USS Kearsarge and Canada's HMCS St. John.

Haiti always struggled to feed its people. Now, it's getting to be impossible.

On a helicopter tour on Tuesday, Fore saw that floodwaters still covered much of Haiti's rice-growing region. Crops were covered with brown mud or lay crushed in ruined fields stretching far as the eye could see.

Gue, the agriculture minister, estimates that 60 percent of this year's food harvest has been wiped out by the storms, which hit just as farmers were preparing to collect corn, plantains and yams from their fields. The fall rice harvest was lost as well.

The damage could be felt for years — mountain topsoil, already loosened by rampant deforestation, washed out to sea. Hundreds of irrigation basins, canals and pumping stations were damaged, and about 10,000 tons (9,000 metric tons) of discounted fertilizer distributed to farmers disappeared.

Altogether, Gue estimated the storms caused $180 million in damage to Haiti's agricultural sector.

Food prices in some hard-hit cities have been pushed to even greater heights. After Ike, which brushed by Haiti on Sept. 7, the cost of U.S.-imported rice had doubled in Gonaives to $5.38 for a large can. For millions of Haitians already facing malnutrition, a daily bowl of rice has become too expensive.

Jacques-Eduoard Michele's family used to depend on the rations of rice and plantains his father was paid to work in the Artibonite fields.

"Even before the storms, we were hungry," he said. "Now we are looking everywhere for food."

If the world does not respond with long-term aid, experts warn that deadly food riots could re-ignite, unraveling Haiti's fragile political stability.

"The situation is calm for now but it could easily erupt again," the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said this week.