Hurricane Tomas flooded the earthquake-shattered remains of a Haitian town today, forcing families who had already lost their homes in one disaster to flee another.
The United Nations and relief agencies have gone on maximum alert to prepare for the risk of a further humanitarian emergency in Haiti, which is already reeling from a deadly cholera epidemic and from the widespread destruction of the earthquake.
Driving winds and storm surge battered Leogane, a seaside town west of the capital Port-au-Prince that was near the epicentre of the earthquake on January 12th and was 90 per cent destroyed.
Dozens of families in one earthquake refuge camp took their belongings through thigh-high water to high ground, waiting out the rest of the storm under blankets. “We got flooded out and we’re just waiting for the storm to pass. There’s nothing we can do,” said Johnny Joseph, a 20-year-old resident.
The storm, with 150km/h winds, was battering the western tip of Haiti’s southern peninsula and the cities of Jeremie and Les Cayes.
One man drowned while trying to cross a river in an SUV in the rural area of Grand-Anse, said civil protection official Pierre Andre.
The centre of the storm was 250km from Port-au-Prince, draping black clouds over the city and dropping a steady rain with occasional bursts of wind. There were no immediate reports of damage.
It had earlier re-intensified over the Caribbean sea into a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, heading on a track that would take it near or over eastern Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas. The hurricane had killed at least 14 people in the eastern Caribbean.
Yesterday, hours before the approach of the cyclone, Haitian president Rene Preval went on national radio to urge citizens to take precautions and follow evacuation recommendations in the face of the risk of gusting winds, surging waves and torrential rains. "Protect your lives," Mr Preval told Haitians.
The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami predicted the biggest threat from Tomas would be heavy rainfall that could produce flash flooding and life-threatening mudslides in Haiti, where massive deforestation - caused largely by impoverished peasants cutting firewood for decades - has left hills and mountains bare and eroded.
Haiti’s civil protection department had urged people living in camps for the 1.3 million Haitians made homeless by the January earthquake to go to the homes of friends and family, although many had not heeded the advice.
Buses began circulating around the camps just after dark last night to take residents away, but few were willing to go. Four civil protection buses that pulled up at a camp in the Canape-Vert district left with only about five passengers on them.
Many camp residents stayed put out of fear they would lose their few possessions and, worse, be denied permission to return when the storm was over.
With the storm threat and the spreading cholera epidemic, Haiti faces major disruption before presidential and legislative elections on November 28th. Electoral officials have not moved to postpone the vote.
The United Nations said the storm will almost certainly exacerbate a cholera epidemic that has killed 442 people and sickened more than 6,700 so far, according to government figures.
"The big fear is for people on exposed mountains. These people are at high risk of landslides and flash flooding," said Leonard Doyle, spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration.
At the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in eastern Cuba, military officials warned the 174 foreign captives detained there that a storm was on the way and laid in supplies of water and packaged meals.
"Detainees are secure in sound structures to ensure their safety and well being," said a spokeswoman for the US navy.
Haitian schools were closed today. Schools were also closed in parts of Jamaica, where Tropical Storm Nicole killed 15 people more than a month ago.
Agencies