Hurricane Gustav, Hanna Pound Weary Haiti

September 3, 2008—As if the struggling island's food woes were not painful enough, poor Haitian families and farmers are being brought to their knees by a series of severe storms.

The high-powered winds of Hurricane Gustav and Tropical Storm Hanna have passed, but the flooding has not ceased.

"The whole country is now affected by severe flooding and heavy rains," stated Alix Innocent, director of Catholic Relief Services' emergency unit in Port-au-Prince. "The situation is getting worse throughout the country."

The northern coastal city of Gonaives, capital of Artibonite department, is now completely flooded. The flooding of the city hospital prompted its medical director to call for an evacuation of all patients. In a September 5 letter the local bishop of Gonaives made an urgent appeal for help. Trapped in his home with 500 other people, he says, residents have no food, water or electricity.

Nearby Cuba also took a beating, as Gustav was the most severe hurricane to hit the island in 50 years. Its 150-mile-per-hour winds, toppled homes, ripped out telephone lines and washed out roads, leaving about 250,000 Cubans homeless.

Gustav struck Haiti as a Category 1 storm while families were still recovering from the effects of Tropical Storm Fay, which touched down in Haiti three weeks ago. Gustav dumped between 6 and 12 inches of rain in parts of the island, triggering floods and landslides which ultimately killed 77 people. With only 1 percent of Haiti's extremely degraded terrain covered by forest, floodwaters raged down the country's bare mountainsides into tin-shack communities unable to withstand the pressure.

Riding the coattails of Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna made its way north of the island Monday (Sept. 1), bringing more rain to an already critical situation. All of the country's 10 departments have now suffered severe flooding. In the southern city of Les Cayes, water is at knee level or higher. On the southern coast, the bridge that spans La Rivine du Sud, one of the region's largest rivers, is in danger of collapsing as water levels rise.

About 6,000 people are in shelters throughout the western and southeast provinces. Approximately 250 houses are destroyed or damaged.

CRS has committed an initial $150,000 in relief efforts and is already providing emergency supplies—hygiene and water purification kits and bottled water—primarily in the country's southern peninsula. In addition, CRS Haiti plans to provide emergency food rations to over 3,000 families in the departments of Grand Anse, West, Southeast and South departments in coming days.

As new rains pound the country's northern region, CRS will respond to meet the areas of greatest need. To start, CRS will distribute water purifying tablets and hygiene kits and food rations to hundreds of families in Gonaives, which is still flooded and unreachable.

A People Suffering

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with more than two-thirds of Haitians living on less than a dollar a day. Occupying the western third of the island of Hispaniola, Haiti, which is slightly larger than the state of Maryland, is home to about 8 million people.

Rains can be devastating for Haiti, which has lost 99 percent of its protective forestry, leaving the mountainous terrain bare and the valleys susceptible to flash flooding. The storms drenched already fragile farmland in a country suffering from the high prices of food, most of which is imported. While the amount of crop acreage destroyed is still unclear, this year's harvest would have provided some relief to suffering families.

CRS' Work in Haiti

With more than 50 years of experience in Haiti, CRS is now one of the largest U.S. humanitarian organizations working in the country. Serving nearly 200,000 of the poorest and most marginalized Haitians, our projects provide assistance with health and nutrition, disaster recovery, education, water and sanitation, HIV and AIDS, agriculture, and migration.