Several Caribbean countries were engaged in mopping up exercises as heavy rains associated with an elongated area of low pressure extending from the northwestern to the north-central Caribbean Sea continue to produce disorganised showers and thunderstorms.
In Haiti, where at least 11 people have so far been killed, the United Nations peacekeepers and humanitarian staff were helping with relief efforts, where floods have killed at least 10 people in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
At least four neighbourhoods of the city – Carrefour, Cité Soleil, Delmas and Pétion-Ville - as well as the southern areas of Gressier and Les Palmes, have been badly affected by flooding that began on Monday night, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA said there are enough pre-positioned medical kits to assist 120,000 people and emergency shelters ready to house as many as 110,000 families, with trauma kits and cholera kits available as well.
Stocks of food supplies, such as cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and salt, are also available at short notice if required.
Blue helmets serving the UN peacekeeping force (MINUSTAH) and OCHA staff have been working with emergency officials and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to assess the damages wrought by the rains and floods.
Peacekeepers have also transferred some internally displaced persons (IDPs), along with their belongings, to camps situated on safer ground.
MINUSTAH reported that it has helicopters on standby in case evacuations are needed and engineering equipment also available if required.
Last week the UN said that Haiti was better prepared than last year to handle the annual hurricane season, which officially began on June 1.
In Guyana, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that his government is treating the situation in the Rupununi Region as an emergency and that all assistance required by the residents in the area will be provided.
“I have asked the entire government apparatus to kick into a relief mode and as you saw, Prime Minister (Sam) Hinds traveled to Rupununi, Minister Robeson Benn (Minister of Works) is in there,” said Jagdeo noting that efforts are being made to provide fuel for various businesses in the area.
“I just want to say that we are treating this now as emergency situation, although it is limited to a specific part of the country, it is a national emergency and as such all the resources of the state will be focused on binging relief to people,” Jagdeo added.
Jagdeo said that many people rely heavily on agriculture for a living and that “all the crops would have been destroyed by now.”
He said he would commission Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud to develop a “plan that we can support people for the next six months”.
The authorities said that Region Nine had been hard hit by the rains that have led to the Takatu River which divides the Guyana and Brazil borders overflowing its banks forcing the evacuation of many people.
Schools have been ordered closed for one week with the buildings being used to provide shelter for more than 260 evacuees. Several mud houses have collapsed but the authorities say there are no reports of deaths or injuries.
Director General of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Chabilall Ramsarup said the supply of electricity to several business and homes had been cut off.
“We are not giving everybody because some peoples’ homes were in water and we do not know what’s the condition of the wires which can cause feedback so those people who are living on higher ground are being given power,” he told reporters.
In Jamaica, residents have been warned to brace themselves for further rains and flash flooding in low lying areas.
The Meteorological Service in a statement said that gradual improvement is expected across the island during the next 12 to 24 hours, but that cloudy conditions would continue with showers and isolated thunderstorm mainly across northern parishes.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said that the heavy rains could cause mudslides over portions of Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Cuba as the system drifts generally northward over the next couple of days.
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