A weekend of heavy rainfall and widespread flooding in Haiti has caused at least 42 deaths and displaced thousands, according to the country’s disaster response agency, as of Monday. More than 13,000 homes were flooded and 85 people injured while 11 went missing. Emergency workers are currently working to provide food, drinking water, and shelter for those affected. In western portions of Haiti, more than 5,500 homes were affected while more than 2,500 people were displaced. Jean-Martin Bauer, the acting humanitarian coordinator for Haiti at the United Nations, said several buildings, especially in the western and northwestern regions of Haiti, were damaged but they were not affected by a tropical storm or a cyclone.
Preliminary videos shared on social media showed cars floating away in the water. In his statement, Mr. Bauer noted that the widespread flooding was the latest blow to a country that has become all too familiar with natural disasters. Since the magnitude-7 earthquake that occurred in 2010 and killed more than 200,000 people and destroyed much of Port-au-Prince, the country has struggled to recover from the massive effects it had on the nation’s economy and infrastructure, while facing other natural disasters. Mr. Bauer expressed concern about the situation in a country facing a major humanitarian crisis.
The port city of Léogâne, west of Port-au-Prince, reported the highest death toll, with 19 people dead. Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas experienced hours of thunderstorms on Saturday that flooded several streets while businesses remained closed on Monday even though supermarkets in the area had reopened. Nearly half of Haiti’s population, about 5.2 million people, were in need of humanitarian assistance before the flooding occurred, the United Nations said. In August 2021, the country was struck by a magnitude-7.2 earthquake that killed more than 1,900 people, followed by heavy rain from a tropical depression two days later.
