As Hurricane Sandy barreled north from the Caribbean, claiming more than five dozen lives, Haiti suffered the worst damage in the region, with severe flooding destroying thousands of homes and leaving many roads impassible. At least 18,796 people were evacuated to emergency shelters.
Despite a government shutdown of schools and businesses, the entire Haiti team reported to the office, hard at work preparing emergency aid and cholera shipments for partners working in communities affected by the storm, including:
- Cholera prevention and relief supplies, delivered October 26 to several partners in the low lying impoverished zones of Port-au-Prince where cholera often spikes after a storm. Support included delivery of emergency family health and hygiene kits for distribution in a community health clinic in Carrefour and a shipment of relief and cholera prevention materials to a community health partner in Martissant.
- Over 5,000 pounds of emergency medical aid, including cholera treatment materials, medicines and relief supplies to partner Hope for Haiti to help the people of heavily flooded town of Les Cayes. This shipment also included enough water purification tablets to treat up to 1,600,000 liters of water. One of the nearby town’s rural cholera treatment units already reported more than 30 new cholera patients since the rains began.
Double checking shipment manifest for emergency shipment to partner in Martissant with local pickup in background
In total, AmeriCares Hurricane Sandy response includes:
15,200 liters of solution for oral rehydration
Storage for 15,169 liters of water
250 pounds of granular chlorine
Treatment for 3,024,000 liters of water
In addition, we are evaluating transport options to deliver relief supplies and hygiene items to partners around the country. Currently we are working with 13 partners in priority areas where rains were the heaviest to deliver urgent life-saving support.
Learn more about previous Hurricane Sandy deliveries »
Learn more about AmeriCares work in Haiti »
