Heavy rains swamp Haiti’s homeless camps

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Heavy rains swamp Haiti’s homeless camps
Deluge terrifies, adds to post-quake misery for thousands of people
updated 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - One of the heaviest rainfalls since Haiti's Jan. 12 earthquake swamped homeless camps Friday, sweeping screaming residents into eddies of water, overflowing latrines and panicking thousands.

The overnight downpour sent water coursing down the slopes of a former golf course that now serves as a temporary home for about 45,000 people.

There were no reports of deaths in the camp, a town-size maze of blue, orange and silver tarps located behind the country club used by the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne as a forward-operating base.

But the deluge terrified families who just two months ago survived the collapse of their homes in the magnitude-7 earthquake and are now struggling to make do in tent-and-tarp camps that officials have repeatedly said must be relocated.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35949776/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. that poor miserable country. What more can happen?

locusts? A hurricane? Meteors?

[Xithras]

2. Locusts and meteors are unlikely...

...but it's been pointed out many times that hurricane season starts in two months. On average, Haiti is hit by two major tropical storms and at least grazed by one hurricane every year.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. and hundreds of thousands still living in tents.

the misery is beyond comprehension.

[Mika]

4. Not even tents. Tarps on ramshackle makeshift "framing" made of debris.

Very few have decent tents.

:cry:

---

[rabs]

5. Sean Penn was on Anderson Cooper's AC360 tonight

Penn was interviewed from Haiti and pretty dramatic footage showed the mud and conditions today at tent camp sites.

Penn said the outlook for the coming rainy and hurricane season is horrific. Anderson Cooper closed by saying he would go down to Haiti soon.


website

www.beattherain.org

has lots more information.