Haiti unprepared for the hurricane season

Haiti’s devastating magnitude 7 earthquake on January 12 was a brutal blow to the Western hemisphere’s poorest country.

220,000 people died, 300,000 were injured, and 300,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Including government buildings, schools, hospitals and other key infrastructure, the total damage is estimated to be US$7.8 billion.

Now the hurricane season has arrived and the ‘tent cities’ that people are currently living in stand no chance. Sadly, the solution to that problem is not looking very promising either.

The relief effort six months on

Due to the shock and scale of the disaster, the response from the international community was rapid.

US$10 billion was pledged to help rebuild and clean up the country, in particular the capital city Port-au-Prince.

Troops were sent in to keep the peace and distribute aid packages, while volunteers from non-governmental organisations like Oxfam and The Salvation Army provided shelter.

On the medical front, personnel from Cuba, the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres treated the wounded and now provide everyday healthcare services.

On May 1, the head of the UN relief effort declared that everyone had emergency shelter, massive food distribution had been undertaken, and there had been no major outbreaks of epidemics.

In fact, many poor Haitians are better off now than they were before the quake. Shelter, food, water, sanitation, and medical services – all of which were previously hard to come by – are largely free and available thanks to the relief effort.

As it stands, 1.5 million Haitians are currently living in makeshift homes made out of tents, tarpaulins and plastic sheeting, in 1300 camps scattered across the affected areas.

The plan is to replace the tent camps with transitional shelters: huts made with wood and steel frames capable of withstanding a moderate hurricane.

They will be used until permanent housing is ready – the building of which is expected to start next year and finish sometime around 2015.

But there is a problem. Only 5,700 of the 135,000 transitional shelters planned to be ready for the hurricane season have been built.

The reason is a lack of land. Even now only 2% of the earthquake rubble has been cleared; 200 million cubic tonnes still remain. This both occupies much-needed space and blocks the transportation of heavy machinery to clear it.

Additionally, it’s not clear what spare land is legal to build on. Already many of the camps are built on private land and some owners are hiring gangs to kick people off.

A ban on evictions was agreed between the government and the UN, however the ban wasn’t well publicised and is poorly enforced.

Now aid agencies are unwilling to build transitional shelters until the ownership of the land title is established.

The problem is that many records were destroyed in the earthquake or the owners may be among the dead (a similar problem occurred in Indonesia after the 2004 Tsunami).

Due to this state of affairs, many fear thousands of Haitians may not have adequate shelter and facilities when the hurricanes arrive.

The hurricane threat

With the earthquake taking place in the winter, the six months after saw mostly dry and mild weather.

But now the summer hurricane and rainy season has arrived, and US officials are warning of ideal ocean temperatures and currents for hurricane formation.

They are predicting between 14 and 23 “named storms” in the region this summer, 8 to 14 of which will strengthen into hurricanes.

Local experts believe even the rainfall from the smallest hurricane would cause storm water and mud from the city’s deforested hills to wash away the tent communities.

So given the lack of the transitional housing, agencies have been forced to come up with a new emergency evacuation plan for the tent populations.

This plan is to temporarily accommodate people in large buildings strong enough to withstand a hurricane.

Those in the camps will be given time to disassemble their tents or tarpaulins and wait out the storm inside with their belongings. Camp volunteers are currently being trained to coordinate the evacuation.

However, due to the earthquake, not enough solid large buildings have been found. The search goes on but officials acknowledge they are far from ready.

The World Food Programme has pre-positioned emergency food rations at 31 spots around the country, while thousands of people have built flood walls and drainage channels in preparation for the heavy rain.

Haiti, already in a gloomy state, is gearing up for trouble. But the worry is that even though they know it’s coming, they just don’t have the means to avoid it.

By The Casual Truth