Heavy rains fell on Haiti over the weekend, and left at least 42 dead and 11 missing according to the toll Monday, June 5 of the civil protection. The bad weather has caused major flooding and landslides in seven of the country's ten departments, already plunged into a humanitarian crisis fueled by gang violence. According to the UN, which counts for its part 15 dead and 8 missing, the rains affected 37,000 people and caused 13,400 displaced.
The city of Léogane, located 40km southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, was particularly affected, the damage having been caused by three rivers in flood. At least 20 people died there, according to the first assessment of the rescue. "The inhabitants are desperate. They lost everything. The waters ravaged their fields, swept away their livestock," the mayor of Léogane, Ernson Henry, told AFP. Thousands of families are affected in his commune, he also said, stressing that the population needed food, drinking water and medicine urgently.
The hurricane season is just beginning
The floods also caused extensive material damage across the country, destroying hundreds of homes and damaging several roads. "Although it is not a cyclone or a tropical storm, the damage observed in the affected areas is considerable," Jean-Martin Bauer, UN coordinator of humanitarian action in Haiti said in a statement. In response, Prime Minister Ariel Henry activated the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC).
This heavy toll highlights the country's vulnerability to natural disasters and failures in terms of risk reduction, as the hurricane season is just beginning. According to Ernson Henry, the realization of works on the watersheds of the rivers could have made it possible to limit the damage to Léogane. Even before the floods, Haiti was already facing a severe humanitarian crisis, with nearly half of its population in need of humanitarian assistance, a figure that has doubled in just five years, according to the UN.
