Rains, Flooding Threaten Haiti's Most Vulnerable
Tent camp at Petionville Golf Club in Port-au-Prince - A tent camp at the Petionville Club in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, holds about 40,000 people, according to local organizers. Officials say 250,000 people across the city need to be moved out of camps such as this one before the rainy season arrives in the next few weeks. This camp is at the bottom of a ravine and could flood during a heavy rain. (Jason Beaubien / NPR)
Aid groups and the government in Haiti have identified tent camps holding more than 200,000 people who could be in great danger if the residents aren't moved before seasonal heavy rains begin in the next couple of weeks.
These high-risk camps are in flood plains or directly under unstable hillsides.
Yet the process of relocating earthquake victims for a second time has been extremely slow.
(Jason Beaubien / NPR)
On a recent day at the Petionville Club camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, people jockeyed for position in a line waiting for food that Catholic Relief Services was about to hand out.
Set in a ravine at the bottom of a golf course, the camp is made up of thousands of makeshift tents constructed out of sticks and bedsheets.
It is one of the largest encampments in Port-au-Prince -- and potentially one of the most dangerous.
Romelus Reynald lives in the camp and is one of the organizers of the local refugee committee. He says that roughly 40,000 people moved to the camp after the earthquake.
He says that when it rains, the entire place turns to mud, and the heavy rains haven't arrived yet.
The camp residents must move, and Reynald says the government has a plan in place to do so. But just where it is going to move them is another question.
The United Nations has identified several sites for new camps on the edges of Port-au-Prince. But so far, only a couple of hundred families have been moved into one of those new settlements.
Marie Claudine Macena lives with seven other people at the Petionville Club camp. Her tent consists of sheets strung up on sticks, with an orange tarp tied over the top. At night, she sleeps with her children on a bed of cardboard.
"The last time it rained, it was terrible," Macena says. "We had to stand up because the water was everywhere. Maybe for the rainy season it's going to be like that. Maybe we are going to have to stand up for the whole night."
The hard rains in Haiti usually start in April.
"We're in a race against time," says Tony Banbury, the second in command of the U.N. mission in Haiti.
Banbury says the priority for the U.N. during this moment of the crisis is to get people some form of shelter and relocate those who are living in the most hazardous locations.
He says there are about 250,000 people living in "really dangerous places."
"So when the rains do come, people are going to be washed away -- their tents, whatever they're living under, just washed out. Some are literally living in a dry riverbed that's going to be a raging torrent when the rains come," Banbury says.
The humanitarian response is in a frantic mode. There is no expectation that things are going to be done perfectly or that everyone is going to get a tent.
A recent U.N. memo said the goal is simply to get earthquake victims "something waterproof" to put over their shelters before the rains hit. The U.N. estimates that they've managed to do this for just over half of the families in need.
Depending on whether the rains hold off, they have a few weeks to distribute plastic sheeting to hundreds of thousands more, and try to relocate a quarter of a million people to camps that are not yet built.
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Haiti could soon find itself at the center of yet another natural disaster. The rainy season begins in the next couple of weeks. And more than 200,000 people now living in tent camps could be in danger if they're not moved before the heavy rains begin.
As NPR's Jason Beaubien reports, these high-risk camps are in flood plains or they're directly under unstable hillsides.
(Soundbite of crowd)
JASON BEAUBIEN: At the Petionville Club camp, people are jockeying for position in a line waiting for food that Catholic Relief Services is about to hand out. The camp is set in a ravine at the bottom of a golf course. Thousands of makeshift tents constructed out of sticks and bed sheets fill the bottom of the ravine. This is one of the largest encampments in Port-au-Prince, and potentially one of the most dangerous.
Mr. ROMELUS REYNALD: (Speaking foreign language)
BEAUBIEN: Romelus Reynald(ph), who lives in the camp and is one of the organizers of the local refugee committee, says roughly 40,000 people moved here after the earthquake. He says when it rains, the entire place turns to mud, and the heavy rains haven't even arrived yet.
Mr. REYNALD: (Through translator) They must move them, but the government need to have a place to put them.
BEAUBIEN: Is there a plan to move these people?
Mr. REYNALD: (Through translator) Yes, there's a plan, but the plan is one thing, where they're going to move them is a second thing.
BEAUBIEN: The U.N. has identified several sites for new camps on the edges of Port-au-Prince. But so far, only a couple of hundred families have been moved into one of those new settlements.
Marie Claudine Macena lives with seven other people at the Petionville Club camp. Her tent consists of sheets strung up on sticks, an orange tarp is tied over the top of it. At night, she sleeps with her children on a bed of cardboard.
Ms. MARIE CLAUDINE MACENA: (Speaking foreign language)
BEAUBIEN: The last time it rained, it was terrible, she says. We had to stand up because the water was everywhere. Maybe for the rainy season it's going to be like that. Maybe we're going to have to stand up for the whole night.
The hard rains in Haiti usually start in April.
Mr. TONY BANBURY (U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti): We're in a race against time.
BEAUBIEN: Tony Banbury is the second in command of the United Nations mission in Haiti. He says the priority for the U.N. during this moment of the crisis is to get people some form of shelter and relocate those who are living in the most hazardous locations.
Mr. BANBURY: There are 250,000 who are living in really dangerous places. So when the rains do come, people are going to be washed away - their tents, whatever they're living under, just washed out. Some are literally living in a dry riverbed that's going to be a raging torrent when the rains come.
BEAUBIEN: The humanitarian response here is in a frantic mode. There's no expectation that things are going to be done perfectly or that everyone is going to get a tent. A recent U.N. memo said that the goal is simply to get earthquake victims something waterproof to put over their shelters before the rains hit. The U.N. estimates that they've managed to do this for just over half of the families in need.
Depending on whether the rains hold off or not, they've got a few weeks to distribute plastic sheeting to hundreds of thousands more, and to try to relocate a quarter of a million people to camps that are not yet built.
Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Port-au-Prince. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
