Recovering From Tropical Storm Noel
November 15, 2007 – Tropical Storm Noel pounded the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba last month, with incessant rains and massive flooding that destroyed thousands of homes, crops and infrastructure.
Overall, an estimated 75,000 people were forced to leave their homes.
Catholic Relief Services committed an initial $500,000 in relief efforts, which will provide emergency supplies—food, water purification tablets, and mosquito nets—for some 1,600 families in the Dominican Republic and hundreds of families in Haiti and Cuba. The Dominican Republic was the hardest hit, with close to 58 people dead and about 45,000 evacuated.
The agency has also committed $1 million toward immediate relief for flood victims in Mexico.
The Madre Vieja Bridge over the Nigua River in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic. Photo by José Luis Guigni/CRS
Tropical Storm Noel struck the Dominican Republic and Haiti on October 29, killing several dozen people, before moving on to Cuba and the Bahamas. Floodwaters in Haiti and the Dominican Republic raged down hillsides into streets, overflowing riverbanks and uprooting trees while thousands of poorly constructed homes proved no match for the storm's thrust. In the Dominican Republic alone, 11 bridges were damaged as well as some 30,000 homes.
"This is definitely the worst tropical storm to hit since Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004," says Holly Inurreta, CRS regional technical advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean. "For some areas, particularly in the Southeast, which weren't hit by Jeanne, this is the worst they've seen in 20 years. Unfortunately, that region, particularly Bani, is the poorest in the country."
In Haiti, which was already reeling from mid-October rains that killed 35 people, the agency is providing hygiene and kitchen kits to 225 families in Oranger, just north of capital city Port-au-Prince. In addition, CRS Haiti provided emergency food rations to 150 people living in a city hall shelter in Leogane and to 252 people in a shelter in Jacmel. Many of the homes in Haiti were reduced to wood skeletons when their fragile walls washed away.
A CRS relief worker visits a devastated area near Baní in the Dominican Republic. Photo by CRS Staff
In Cuba, where flooding damaged crops and homes in the eastern provinces of Las Tunas and Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Bayamo-Manzanillo, CRS Cuba, working with Caritas Cubana, is providing bedding, food and home repair materials to some 350 families.
In addition, CRS is preparing six containers of food and roofing materials to be shipped to the island. In the Dominican Republic, the hardest hit areas of the country have been the south and southwest. Many roads are still impassible and communication infrastructure is severely damaged.
"Some towns are completely cut off still and there are people on roofs in some places waiting to be rescued," Inurreta says. "But as we start to reach these communities, the extent of the damage and the suffering the storm has caused will begin to surface."
Of concern is the potential for an outbreak of dengue fever in the Dominican Republic, which already has high rates of the virus. Mosquito nets and water purification and collection material are critical right now, says Inurreta.
CRS Dominican Republic is coordinating emergency relief efforts in provinces of Bani and San Cristobal. In San Cristobal, a province three-hours west of the capital, the rains caused a landslide that killed three people and collapsed an old bridge, leaving thousands stranded.
A Long History of Disaster Response
CRS has worked in the Dominican Republic, Haiti for more than five decades, and in Cuba for 14 years, providing relief during some of the most devastating disasters. In response to floods earlier this month in Haiti, the agency is focusing immediate relief in the South Department near Les Cayes and in small isolated communities north of Port-au-Prince that were severely affected.
