Why did Hurricane Gustav affect Haiti so badly? Oxfam’s David Vinuales reports.Since 2008’s devastating hurricane season,
communication between the Haitian town of Miragoane and the capital, Port-au Prince, has not been the same. Rains flooded the roads between the two areas for a month and, one year on, the
floods remain. Cars now have to take a detour, and people who cannot go around the local mountain need to take a taxi boat just to cross the road.
People crossing the road by boat between Miragoane and Port-au Prince by boat
The city of Miragoane, in the country’s Nippes department, was hard hit last year. Hurricane
Gustav struck badly. People died, houses were destroyed, crops were ruined - it was the usual scene of devastation in the aftermath of a hurricane.You wonder why the area was so badly hit,
until you see the way that the water carried stones and mud into the houses of local residents.Swaziliya Pierre Louis, who is 54, has lived in Miragoane
since she was a small child. She says she cannot remember devastation as bad as that wreaked by Gustav.Â
Swaziliya Pierre Louis
“When Hurricane Gustav arrived the water came down from the hill and destroyed my house. I had to run away to a shelter”, she said.So why was the impact of Gustav so terrible? To understand we must keep in mind
the power of the wind-driven rain, and the poverty of the people in the town. But the positioning of the town
also plays a huge factor - as a ravine runs straight into the sea through the middle of the town.Oxfam has helped people such as Swazilliya after Gustav to recover as quickly as possible.However there is a long road ahead, particularly when climate change is increasing the vulnerability of the poorest
people in Haiti - the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere.Learn more: Oxfam in HaitiYou
can help: Donate to vulnerable communities in Haiti More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A handout from the Taiwan Military News Agency shows soldiers surveying the area to build a temporary bridge on a riverbed covered by a mudslide following Typhoon Morakot in Taitung County, ...
