PORT-AU-PRINCE – Government officials and aid agencies in Haiti have been scrambling to prepare crowded earthquake survivor camps and coastal towns for a possible hit by a hurricane later this week.
Tropical storm Tomas, which is heading westward across the eastern Caribbean sea, is expected to turn north towards Haiti and the Dominican Republic by the end of the week and to restrengthen as a hurricane, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Jamaica could also be affected, although the precise track of the storm remained uncertain, forecasters said.
Tomas now threatens another humanitarian emergency for disaster-prone Haiti, the western hemisphere’s poorest state.
Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake in January and is grappling with a cholera epidemic that has killed at least 330 people and made nearly 5,000 more ill.
“This storm is approaching at a time when aid agencies in Haiti are already stretched to the limit,” said Nigel Fisher, the humanitarian co-ordinator for the United Nations in Haiti. “The humanitarian challenges involved are among the most complex I’ve seen in my entire career,” he added.
As a Category 1 hurricane over the weekend, Tomas battered Barbados, St Lucia and St Vincent in the Windward Islands, ripping roofs off homes and knocking down trees and power lines.
Insurance experts were estimating that insurance payouts for the three islands would rise above $10 million (€7.12 million).
Haitian officials and aid workers are worried the powerful winds and torrential rain associated with Tomas will threaten more than 1.3 million homeless earthquake survivors living in tent and tarpaulin camps.
In September, a powerful storm in the capital killed at least six people and destroyed the temporary homes of more than 10,000 families. – (Reuters)