Port-au-Prince: Strengthening Tropical Storm Tomas drenched Haiti on Thursday, threatening fragile, crowded earthquake survivors' camps in the poor Caribbean country that is also reeling from a deadly cholera epidemic.
Tomas was expected to pass close to Haiti overnight, endangering the largely deforested land with gusting winds, surging waves and torrential rains of up to 10 or 15 inches (25 or 38 cm) in some areas.
The US National Hurricane Centre said Tomas was strengthening. It carried top sustained winds of 65 miles per hour (100 km/h) and could be near or at hurricane strength — 74 miles per hour (119 kph) — as it passed Haiti, Jamaica and eastern Cuba.
Haitian President Rene Preval went on national radio to urge citizens to take precautions and follow evacuation recommendations. "Protect your lives," he said.
A January 12 quake in Haiti killed more than a quarter of a million people in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. About 1.3 million survivors still live in hundreds of makeshift tent camps crammed into open spaces in the wrecked capital Port-au-Prince.
Miserable night
Camp dwellers hunkered down for a miserable night as rain fell steadily. Every camp has a committee charged with keeping order, and several committee leaders said they were trying to alleviate conditions for the most vulnerable.
"We are putting old people and young families in the Red Cross shelter [tent]," said Yves-Marie Sopin at a camp for around 5,000 in the grounds of the prime minister's residence.
"We have heard that there will be a storm but we don't know much about it and we haven't taken precautions. We are in God's hands," said Ave Lise Mesila, in her white tarpaulin tent at the Acra 2 camp.
The UN said the storm will almost certainly exacerbate a cholera epidemic that has so far killed 442 people and sickened more than 6,700, according to government figures. Tomas was expected to bring surging waves, heavy rains and possible flash flooding and mudslides to mountainous Haiti, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
"The big fear is for people on exposed mountains. These people are at high risk of landslides and flash flooding," said Leonard Doyle, spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration.
