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Sunday, November 4, 2012
The Haitian government is calling on other countries and international organisations to provide emergency humanitarian aid after Hurricane Sandy caused major damage to the impoverished nation.
The eye of the storm passed west of Haiti the night of October 24. But its rain-heavy outer bands soaked the southern coast and capital for much of that week, causing many rivers to overflow. Authorities say the storm destroyed 70 per cent of the crops in Haiti's south and caused widespread deaths of livestock.
Officials say that at least 52 people died. The United Nations said that 1.6 million people were affected.
The Caribbean country is still struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake nearly two years ago.
Meanwhile,
Haiti is still grappling with the devastation left there by Hurricane Sandy, with aid organisations already reporting a spike in the number of suspected cholera cases.
Haiti had the highest death toll in the Caribbean after the Hurricane, with at least 52 persons left dead there due to landslides and flooding.
The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) also says 86 new suspected cases of cholera have come from tent camps in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where thousands of people are still living after the earthquake two years ago.
Many Haitian communities are now only accessible by helicopter, and 18 thousand families have been left homeless by the Hurricane. Acres of crops in the southern end of the country have also been left damaged, along with a number of roads and bridges
Since October 2010, a cholera outbreak has sickened almost 600,000 people in Haiti and killed more than seven thousand.
Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe says the government plans to appeal for emergency aid.
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