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November 14, 2012

Haiti Floods Devastate Harvest, Threaten Disease 
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The United Nations is warning that Haiti's upcoming March harvest may
already have been destroyed by the flooding of Hurricane Sandy. Sandy
left Haiti overrun with devastating floods, causing widespread damage
and adding thousands of people to the massive numbers already displaced
by previous floods and the devastating earthquake of January 2010. On
Tuesday, U.N. relief official Johan Peleman said in addition to
potentially destroying March's harvest, the new flooding has led to a
spike in water-borne disease.

Johan Peleman: "Now that half the country has been flooded and water has
in some areas — and we're now 10 days away from Sandy — some
areas are still completely inundated with water and sanitation systems
broken or needing drainage. We obviously fear a new breakout of
waterborne diseases including spikes in cholera. Between the 28th of
October and the 8th of November, we had 4,000 new cases which is almost
double the average that we’ve seen for the remainder of the year."

 

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