Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Red Alert for Tomas


Haiti has just notched up it's alert system to the highest level - red - for the oncoming hurricane which is expected to hit the south-west coast of the island on Friday. The earthquake affected area is closer to the capital, which may yet escape the worst of the winds, but it will certainly receive a lot of rain (min 50cm). Historically, this has caused mass flooding in the Port-au-Prince area. Of course, the area is particularly sensitive because of the cholera outbreak and the 1.3M people living in camps. For most camps there is no real damage prevention strategy (beyond extra tie-downs for tents, clean up of dangerous objects, etc) since the set-up is so vulnerable to begin with. Instead, NGOs and the government are already planning the response which will include food/water distribution, medical care and clean up. We'll post more information here as we get it.

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