A woman whose house was flooded in Tropical Storm Isaac sits with the items she was able to salvage, outside of Port-au-Prince. REUTERS/Swoan ParkerThough damage from Tropical Storm Isaac was less than feared, CARE is working to meet the needs of vulnerable families who were harmed by the storm’s heavy rains. We are distributing tarpaulins to 1,000 families in Carrefour, where Isaac has blown off rooftops and caused flooding. A separate distribution will provide shelter materials such as tarpaulins, ropes and nails to an additional 3,000 families living inside and outside of camps.
Tropical Strom Isaac hit Haiti early Saturday morning, bringing heavy rains, causing power outages, forcing rivers and streams to overflow their banks.
“The needs are most dire in Port-au-Prince, Carrefour and Leogane,” said Jean-Michel Vigreux, CARE’s country director in Haiti. “The emergency shelters in camps in Carrefour have been hit hard by the rain. They are leaking and flooding. Water is stagnating around the camps and in some areas latrines are flooded. In the neighborhoods water is rushing through poorly constructed drainage, eroding the already precarious hillsides and ravines.”
CARE in Haiti
CARE, which has been in Haiti since 1954, works closely with the Haitian government, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other nongovernmental organisations. After a deadly earthquake levelled much of the capital and surrounding areas in January 2010, CARE reached more than 290,000 people with food, clean water, temporary shelter and other vital services after the disaster. CARE provided clean water for more than half a million people, built 2,550 transitional shelters and constructed 2,500 latrines and showers.
Help with disaster relief: Donate to our Emergency Fund.
