RSOE EDIS - Situation Update No. 1 : Haiti - Flash Flood

RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Budapest, Hungary RSOE EDIS ALERTMAIL

Situation Update No. 1 Posted:2010-02-28, 04:22:58 [UTC] Ref.no.: FF-20100228-25136-HTI Situation Update No. 1 On 2010-02-28 at 05:18:10 [UTC] Event: Flash Flood Location: Haiti Departmento de Sud Les Cayes Number of Deads: 11 person(s) Number of Missing: 2 person(s) Number of Evacuated: 400 person(s) Situation: Flooding triggered by heavy rain killed at least 11 people in Les Cayes, Haiti's third most populous city and an area unscathed by the devastating January 12 earthquake that flattened much of the country's capital. Heavy rains washed more than 1.5 meters (60 inches) of water into Les Cayes, flooding the city's hospital and prison, Haiti's civil emergencies service said. Witnesses said homes collapsed and people were fleeing for safer areas. "The situation is grave.... Whole areas are completely flooded. People have climbed on to the roofs of their homes," a local senator, Francky Exius said. UN peacekeepers and Haitian police evacuated 500 inmates from the local prison, officials said, while hospital staff moved patients to the safety of higher floors. Exius said five people were killed in Les Cayes's Gelee district when rising waters flipped their vehicles. Another three were killed in the nearby village of Torbeck, where the water "has carried away portions of the asphalt of the road," a parliamentary deputy, Guy Gerard Georges said. The deaths added to one other fatality in the town of Baraderes recorded by the emergencies service, and two others in the region relayed by a local journalist also contacted said. "Several towns and villages in southern Haiti are flooded," a spokesman for the civil emergency unit said. "Continuous rain has forced people to abandon their homes." The coastal city of Les Cayes, on a peninsula 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, has an estimated permanent population of 70,000. That number has swollen as survivors of the January 12 earthquake that leveled 70 percent of Port-au-Prince fled to untouched Haitian cities and towns. The heavy rains were a portent of what Port-au-Prince could face within weeks, when the Caribbean's wet season will wash over the exposed capital and its huddled residents. Please DO NOT reply to this message: replies may be treated as errors and result in your subscription being deleted. If you have trouble or other queries, send email to havaria@rsoe.hu RSOE EDIS is operated by the National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications (RSOE), Budapest, Hungary. Because of the complexity of this system and its dependence on other systems, we cannot be responsible for delays or failures in forwarding or transmission. You're receiving this AlertMail because you subscribed for the service. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. Contact: havaria@rsoe.hu