Tropical Storm Isaac lashed Haiti early Saturday, bringing gale-force winds and potential flooding to a nation where hundreds of thousands still live in tent cities following a 2010 earthquake.
Forecasters said Isaac was near hurricane strength when the eye of the storm landed in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people are still living in squalid, makeshift camps with nothing but sheets of metal or tarpaulin as roofs.
“It has just moved ashore west of Port-au-Prince,” Jessica Schauer, a spokeswoman from the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said on Saturday morning.
About 400,000 people still live in temporary tent camps following the earthquake that killed 250,000 and seriously damaged the capital city Port-au-Prince in 2010, and they have nowhere to go.
As Haiti braced itself for the storm on Friday night, streets grew empty, and only a few, rare vehicles ventured out after dark. Earlier in the day, long lines had formed outside supermarkets as people stocked up on supplies.
“We’re not ready,” said Martine, who heads a watch group at a camp hosting a thousand families.
“When it rains, we stand under tents with holes in them. There are many children and we don’t know what to do if we have to evacuate,” she added.
With no access to public toilets or safe drinking water, residents of the Canape Vert camp complained about the lack of help from the authorities.
But a government official said President Michel Martelly, who cancelled a trip to Japan, had toured emergency shelters in central Port-au-Prince to distribute food supplies and blankets.
Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said the entire government, including security forces, had been mobilised to prepare for the storm.
Aid groups warned that those without proper shelter after the quake were among the most vulnerable if Isaac hits the capital, at risk of disease from water contamination and other disaster scenarios.
Cuba issued a tropical storm warning for its eastern provinces, and the Bahamian government put Andros Island under a hurricane watch, the National Hurricane Center said.
A hurricane watch was issued early Saturday for Florida’s east coast, from Golden Beach south, while a hurricane warning was issued for the Florida Keys, the west coast of Florida, from Bonita Beach south, and the Floriday Bay, according to the hurricane center.
A watch means hurricane conditions are possible, and a warning means that hurricane conditions are expected.
The earliest Isaac could build to hurricane strength would be Sunday when it makes its way into the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.
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