Hurricane Tomas
Haitian authorities (the Direction de la Protection Civile, DPC) issued a red alert warning on 3 November 2010 in anticipation of Hurricane “Tomas” which struck on 5 November 2010.
According to the DPC, Hurricane Tomas left 8 people dead while more than 16,000 people voluntarily evacuated from their homes in anticipation of flooding.
The humanitarian community, in conjunction with the DPC, responded to the needs of the evacuees including food, blankets and hygiene kits.
To assess the impact of Tomas, two UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams and inter-agency missions were carried out on 6 November one in the north of the country and another in the southern regions.
MINUSTAH worked closely with the Haitian authorities to prepare for the storm. Military engineering units were deployed to Jacmel and Petit Goave, in support of local authorities. The MINUSTAH militaries helped evacuate 2,562 people towards provisional shelters.
The humanitarian community worked in advance of the storm to:
- evacuate the most vulnerable camp residents in Port-au-Prince
- deliver water to those most at-risk of a storm in Port-au-Prince
- stock up on tarps and tents to cover the needs of 300,000 individuals
- contact 12,589 households through community mobilizers, and send out 120,000 text messages to camp residents
Read more about the humanitarian effort on the website for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
(4 November 2010)