Red Cross Blogs

Rain and shelter – the twin problems facing Haiti

By Nick Young
March 30, 2010 at 10:01 am

Long meeting with Marcel and Ian, who are running the Federation’s operation in Haiti. Already they are planning for what is effectively a second disaster response operation when the rains start in earnest.

This is one problem, the other is land. There isn’t enough and arrangements to release privately owned land for use by those displaced by the earthquake are making little progress. Every spare inch is crowded with tents and tarpaulins. Most people now, perhaps 70%, have cover of a rudimentary kind: but it’s not enough to withstand days and nights of torrential rain, let alone a hurricane.

But that’s a temporary solution. Somehow we have to find space to build tens of thousands of proper shelters that will last a few years whilst governments, hopefully, will make the money and the muscle available to start to rebuild.

Later, we drove downtown, past the Presidential Palace with its crazy leaning domes; the Tax Office reduced, quite literally, to dust; shops and offices with gaping windows and shattered walls. We went up into the hills, to see the broken headquarters of the Haitian Red Cross, and looked across a valley full of dusty rubble and blotched with blue tarps.

Across the city, in a 4 hour drive, we saw not a street untouched, nor a single open space without its crop of tents. Everywhere was dust and rubble, and only twice did we see any serious attempt at clearance.

We visited also the ‘Golf Course’ camp, publicised by Sean Penn’s recent visit. There are now US soldiers on guard duty, and concerted efforts being made to improve conditions. Sean himself swished by in a small jeep while we were there, evidently still concerned to help. Trouble is, it’s just one of 600 such camps, spread around the city and further afield.

Back at base, we talked with our shelter expert about the challenges of identifying who most needs help in crowded camps, of how to source sufficient timber for the task, and how physically to set about building while the camps are so crammed full.

No rain tonight at least, but tomorrow is another day…..

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Tags: earthquake, Haiti, International Federation

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