At Least 42 Are Dead and Thousands Are Displaced After Flooding in Haiti

At least 42 folks have been useless and hundreds have been displaced after a weekend of heavy rainfall and widespread flooding in Haiti, the nation’s catastrophe response company stated on Monday.

The heavy rain, which fell totally on Saturday and Sunday, flooded greater than 13,000 properties, displacing folks throughout Haiti, based on the company. It additionally stated that 85 folks have been injured and 11 have been lacking after the floods.

As emergency employees rushed to offer meals, ingesting water and shelter for individuals who have been affected, western parts of the Caribbean nation appeared to have suffered the brunt of the heavy rain.

In western parts of Haiti, greater than 5,000 properties had been affected by rain and flooding, leaving greater than 2,500 folks displaced, the company stated in an replace on Sunday. In the central area, it stated that the agriculture sector had been “very impacted.”

Videos circulating on social media depicted dramatic scenes over the weekend as heavy flooding made some roadways seem like flowing rivers with automobiles floating away.

Jean-Martin Bauer, the appearing humanitarian coordinator for Haiti on the United Nations, stated in a assertion on Monday that quite a few colleges and different buildings have been broken, significantly within the western and northwestern areas of Haiti.

“Although this is not a cyclone nor a tropical storm, considerable damage was observed in the affected areas,” Mr. Bauer stated.

At a news convention on Sunday, the appearing prime minister, Ariel Henry, thanked volunteers with the catastrophe response company for his or her work. He stated on Twitter that federal companies have been working to satisfy the “demands of the day.”

The widespread flooding is the most recent blow to a rustic that has develop into all too aware of pure disasters, most notably a magnitude-7 earthquake in 2010 that killed greater than 200,000 folks and destroyed a lot of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Since then, Haiti has struggled to recuperate from the large results the earthquake had on the nation’s economic system and infrastructure, whereas going through different pure disasters. In August 2021, greater than 1,900 folks have been killed in Haiti after the nation was struck by a magnitude-7.2 earthquake, which was adopted by heavy rain from a tropical despair simply two days later.

“I am particularly concerned by this situation at a time when the Haitian population is already highly vulnerable,” Mr. Bauer stated on Monday, including that the flooding got here “at a time when the country is facing a major humanitarian crisis.”

Even earlier than this weekend’s rain and flooding, almost half of Haiti’s inhabitants, about 5.2 million folks, have been in want of humanitarian help, based on the United Nations.