SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Rains Threaten More Haiti Misery
Feb 26, 2010
The
first heavy rains have hit Haiti since last month's devastating
earthquake struck, swamping makeshift camps that house hundreds of
thousands of homeless and raising fears of landslides and disease.
The rains late on Thursday came as forecasters warned of a large
storm heading in Haiti's direction that could strike over the weekend.
More
than a million people were made homeless by the deadly January 12
quake, many of them now living in flimsy makeshift shelters that offer
little protection from heavy rains.
Relief workers say the approaching wet season and the hurricane
season later this year will likely add to misery for quake survivors
struggling to rebuild their lives.
Even before the quake Haiti often suffered badly during the rain and hurricane seasons as a result of its poor infrastructure.
In 2008 a series of storms killed more than 800 people.
Now in the capital Port-au-Prince, some 770, 000 quake survivors are
living in makeshift camps and with the onset of rains, the threat of
disease and infection poses another great challenge.
'Huge challenge'
"We have a huge challenge in terms of just providing emergency
shelter - something that we feel that if we put all of our weight
behind, as we are doing right now, we will be able (to do)," Kristen
Knutson, a spokeswoman for the UN office that is coordinating the
international relief effort, told Reuters news agency.
Thursday's deluge hit as relief officials changed strategy on dealing with quake survivors, delaying plans to build big refugee camps outside the capital.
Instead, they want the homeless to pack up their tents and return to destroyed neighbourhoods.
Gerald-Emile Brun, an architect with the Haitian government's
reconstruction committee, told Reuters that "everything has to be done
before the start of the rainy season, and we will not be able to do it".
Brun also suggested that Haitians may largely be left to fend for themselves.
Haiti meanwhile is continuing to count the economic cost of the quake.
Call to cancel debt
On Thursday the country's president, Rene Preval, said government
assessments had indicated that the disaster would cost the already poor
country up to 50 per cent of its gross domestic product.
"This earthquake... led to the deaths of 200,000 to 300,000 people and destroyed from 35 to 50 per cent of the GDP," he said.
Preval was speaking reporters after meeting Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, his Brazilian counterpart at a UN-Brazilian military base in
Port-au-Prince.
During his brief visit, Lula called on the international community
to cancel Haiti's debt, and officials from the two governments signed
agreements to aid Haitian farmers and schools, which were hard hit in
the quake.
According to the United Nations, 5,000 schools were damaged or
destroyed in Haiti, which was already the poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere before the catastrophe struck.
Lula also referred to a recent South American summit's pledge of
$300m in aid for Haiti, including an agreement to create a $100m fund
to help the government with immediate needs.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The
first heavy rains have hit Haiti since last month's devastating
earthquake struck, swamping makeshift camps that house hundreds of
thousands of homeless and raising fears of landslides and disease.
The rains late on Thursday came as forecasters warned of a large
storm heading in Haiti's direction that could strike over the weekend.
More
than a million people were made homeless by the deadly January 12
quake, many of them now living in flimsy makeshift shelters that offer
little protection from heavy rains.
Relief workers say the approaching wet season and the hurricane
season later this year will likely add to misery for quake survivors
struggling to rebuild their lives.
Even before the quake Haiti often suffered badly during the rain and hurricane seasons as a result of its poor infrastructure.
In 2008 a series of storms killed more than 800 people.
Now in the capital Port-au-Prince, some 770, 000 quake survivors are
living in makeshift camps and with the onset of rains, the threat of
disease and infection poses another great challenge.
'Huge challenge'
"We have a huge challenge in terms of just providing emergency
shelter - something that we feel that if we put all of our weight
behind, as we are doing right now, we will be able (to do)," Kristen
Knutson, a spokeswoman for the UN office that is coordinating the
international relief effort, told Reuters news agency.
Thursday's deluge hit as relief officials changed strategy on dealing with quake survivors, delaying plans to build big refugee camps outside the capital.
Instead, they want the homeless to pack up their tents and return to destroyed neighbourhoods.
Gerald-Emile Brun, an architect with the Haitian government's
reconstruction committee, told Reuters that "everything has to be done
before the start of the rainy season, and we will not be able to do it".
Brun also suggested that Haitians may largely be left to fend for themselves.
Haiti meanwhile is continuing to count the economic cost of the quake.
Call to cancel debt
On Thursday the country's president, Rene Preval, said government
assessments had indicated that the disaster would cost the already poor
country up to 50 per cent of its gross domestic product.
"This earthquake... led to the deaths of 200,000 to 300,000 people and destroyed from 35 to 50 per cent of the GDP," he said.
Preval was speaking reporters after meeting Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, his Brazilian counterpart at a UN-Brazilian military base in
Port-au-Prince.
During his brief visit, Lula called on the international community
to cancel Haiti's debt, and officials from the two governments signed
agreements to aid Haitian farmers and schools, which were hard hit in
the quake.
According to the United Nations, 5,000 schools were damaged or
destroyed in Haiti, which was already the poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere before the catastrophe struck.
Lula also referred to a recent South American summit's pledge of
$300m in aid for Haiti, including an agreement to create a $100m fund
to help the government with immediate needs.
The
first heavy rains have hit Haiti since last month's devastating
earthquake struck, swamping makeshift camps that house hundreds of
thousands of homeless and raising fears of landslides and disease.
The rains late on Thursday came as forecasters warned of a large
storm heading in Haiti's direction that could strike over the weekend.
More
than a million people were made homeless by the deadly January 12
quake, many of them now living in flimsy makeshift shelters that offer
little protection from heavy rains.
Relief workers say the approaching wet season and the hurricane
season later this year will likely add to misery for quake survivors
struggling to rebuild their lives.
Even before the quake Haiti often suffered badly during the rain and hurricane seasons as a result of its poor infrastructure.
In 2008 a series of storms killed more than 800 people.
Now in the capital Port-au-Prince, some 770, 000 quake survivors are
living in makeshift camps and with the onset of rains, the threat of
disease and infection poses another great challenge.
'Huge challenge'
"We have a huge challenge in terms of just providing emergency
shelter - something that we feel that if we put all of our weight
behind, as we are doing right now, we will be able (to do)," Kristen
Knutson, a spokeswoman for the UN office that is coordinating the
international relief effort, told Reuters news agency.
Thursday's deluge hit as relief officials changed strategy on dealing with quake survivors, delaying plans to build big refugee camps outside the capital.
Instead, they want the homeless to pack up their tents and return to destroyed neighbourhoods.
Gerald-Emile Brun, an architect with the Haitian government's
reconstruction committee, told Reuters that "everything has to be done
before the start of the rainy season, and we will not be able to do it".
Brun also suggested that Haitians may largely be left to fend for themselves.
Haiti meanwhile is continuing to count the economic cost of the quake.
Call to cancel debt
On Thursday the country's president, Rene Preval, said government
assessments had indicated that the disaster would cost the already poor
country up to 50 per cent of its gross domestic product.
"This earthquake... led to the deaths of 200,000 to 300,000 people and destroyed from 35 to 50 per cent of the GDP," he said.
Preval was speaking reporters after meeting Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva, his Brazilian counterpart at a UN-Brazilian military base in
Port-au-Prince.
During his brief visit, Lula called on the international community
to cancel Haiti's debt, and officials from the two governments signed
agreements to aid Haitian farmers and schools, which were hard hit in
the quake.
According to the United Nations, 5,000 schools were damaged or
destroyed in Haiti, which was already the poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere before the catastrophe struck.
Lula also referred to a recent South American summit's pledge of
$300m in aid for Haiti, including an agreement to create a $100m fund
to help the government with immediate needs.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy