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Hurricane Tomas Brings More Suffering to Haiti

by AmeriCares | AmeriCares
Saturday, 6 November 2010 14:00 GMT

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

As Hurricane Tomas bears down on Haiti, AmeriCares has mounted emergency response efforts. AmeriCares disaster relief team in Haiti is delivering lifesaving medical aid to areas expected to be hardest hit. Despite the threat of Hurricane Tomas and calls for evacuation, thousands of Haitian families will not leave dangerous tent cities. Many are afraid to abandon what little they have after the January 2010 earthquake. Others simply have nowhere else to go find shelter from torrential rains and winds as high as 75 mph.   Since the beginning of the rainy season, emergency aid and relief supplies have been stocked in Haiti. AmeriCares also recently sent an emergency airlift of medical aid and relief supplies to fight Haiti's ongoing cholera outbreak. "With the recent airlift providing critical medicines and supplies, AmeriCares has restocked its warehouse and is prepared for the storm," said Rachel Granger, VP for Post Emergency Programs. "A major concern from the storm is an increase in the spread of cholera. So far the deadly disease had killed more than 440 people and sickened more than 6,700." Nearly 1.3 million men, women and children remain homeless and vulnerable after the January earthquake. Many survivors still live in makeshift tents and shelters with little or no protection from Hurricane Tomas.  "With the earthquake, then cholera, and now this storm - the Haitian people are facing yet another heartbreaking crisis," continued Granger. AmeriCares has already delivered over $30 million in aid to Haiti to help survivors of the devastating January 2010 earthquake.
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