The death toll from the heavy floods that hit Haiti over the weekend has risen to 42.
According to Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, at least 85 people were left injured, and more than 13,600 homes were flooded, forcing people to evacuate and leaving 19,000 people homeless,
The rains pelted Haiti’s western, northwestern, southeastern, and central regions, officials said.
The DPC said 85 people were injured in the floods, and 11 people were missing.
The World Food Programme said tens of thousands of people have been affected, with the greatest damage reported in Port-au-Prince’s metropolitan area and in Haiti’s western region.
‘A significant weather-induced event of this level so early in the hurricane season…raises concerns about the ability to provide a sustained response should extreme weather incidents continue to occur,’ the agency warned.
The country’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry has said he has asked for international help.
‘My government, together with national and international institutions, is adopting urgent measures to meet the demands of the day,’ Prime Minister Henry said in a government statement.
Aid agencies have been delivering food to those displaced from their homes as civil protection officials warned over the weekend that the agricultural sector in parts of the country had been hard hit.
The rains coincide with the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to November.
‘Even before the landslides and flooding, half the population of Haiti was in need of humanitarian assistance,’ Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters.
‘We urge donors to scale up the support for the country’s Humanitarian Response Plan, which is sadly only 20 percent funded, and it is an appeal for $720 million.
Jean-Martin Bauer, World Food Progam’s country director and Haiti’s acting humanitarian coordinator, said although this isn’t a cyclone or tropical storm that battered Haiti, ‘considerable damage’ has been observed in the affected areas.
‘WFP has the capacity to respond to this emergency, but a significant weather induced event of this level so early in the hurricane season, which generally runs from June to November each year, raises concerns about the ability to provide a sustained response should extreme weather incidents continue to occur,’ the agency said in a statement.
At least 7,500 families were impacted by the flooding, according to the DPC.
The flooding in Haiti comes as the Atlantic hurricane season gets underway.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted a near-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year, with about 12 to 17 named storms expected.
One storm has already been named since the season began on Thursday.
Tropical Storm Arlene formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, but was downgraded to a sub-tropical depression, according to the National Hurricane Center.
