Beleaguered Haiti braced for Tropical Storm Emily
With Tropical Storm Emily on course to hit Haiti, the country is bracing itself for further misery as it struggles to recover from last year’s devastating earthquake.
Emily has already unleashed rain over Haiti and is packing sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (80kph).
The people most at risk are those living in camps like the Canapevert refugee camp, which sprung up in Port-au-Prince after last year’s earthquake.
About 600,000 Haitians are still living in camps, with nothing more than makeshift tents and tarpaulins to protect them from the tropical storm.
“It is a big concern obviously because there are more than 600,000 people that are still living in camps in Port-au-Prince. Big concern for us.
“We are ready to provide food assistance to them right after the storm if needed, obviously,” said Stephanie Tremblay, from the United Nations World Food Programme in Haiti.
Emily hit parts of Puerto Rico earlier this week and is headed towards the Dominican Republic and neighbouring Haiti.
The worst rainfall is expected to miss Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, but it could be enough to cause severe flooding.
In Haiti, local authorities urged people to conserve food and safeguard their belongings as they prepared a fleet of buses to evacuate people from flooded areas.
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