April 20, 2010
The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday about the upcoming rainy season and efforts made in preparation by both aid agencies and the government. While rains have already begun, they are set to increase in both intensity and frequency over the coming months. Despite dire warnings and months of preparation Haiti is still not ready for the rains, reports the Times. Thousands of Haitians are in extremely vulnerable areas, however relocation efforts have been delayed and only just recently have gotten under way. In the meantime, the rains continue to make life miserable in the make shift camps that are home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The Los Angeles Times writes:
The rainy season is bearing down, and Haiti is not ready.
Three months after the earthquake killed more than 200,000 people, more than 2.1 million Haitians are still living in tents and under tarps, many on dangerous hillsides and tidal flats.
Ernst Y’Voyelle, 38, studies those clouds warily from his hut clinging to the edge of a ravine in a hillside tent camp where as many as 50,000 people live.
“There’s going to be a lot of people buried here,” he said.
A short rain the night before had turned his patch of loose dirt into a sticky slop. Half an inch of clay clung to his loafers.
Aid workers had been talking about moving people out of dangerous spots like this one for weeks, but only last weekend did they begin, with 62 people.
Y’Voyelle was not one of them.
Nor was Saluido Desauguste. He was sleeping the other night when water poured out from a drainage ditch near his tent. He had time only to get himself and his two children out before the water swept away the tent and all the possessions he had left after the earthquake took everything else.
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