PORT-AU-PRINCE – A storm unleashed torrential rains, mudslides and flooding in Haiti killing at least 10 people, officials said yesterday, after thunderstorms pounded several Caribbean countries.
The heavy rainfall comes at the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and as Haiti and the Dominican Republic grapple with cholera outbreaks that could be worsened by the floods.
In Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, flooding swept through slums and tent camps housing hundreds of thousands of people still homeless after Haiti’s massive 2010 earthquake.
Haiti’s civil protection director Alta Jean-Baptiste said some of the dead lived in low-lying areas and had failed to heed government warnings to evacuate. “They are people who decided to build in river beds and other areas of risk,” she said.
Rains threaten to cause flash floods in Caribbean states over coming days, the US National Hurricane Center said. – (Reuters)