at least 42 dead and more than 13,000 displaced after floods

Heavy rains fell on Haiti on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 June. Occurring two days before a deadly earthquake, these bad weather caused the death of at least 42 people and caused the disappearance of at least 11 individuals, according to the report communicated Monday by civil protection. According to the UN, which counts 15 dead and 8 missing, the rains, which caused major flooding and landslides in seven of the country’s ten departments, affected 37,000 people and caused 13,400 to be displaced.

The city of Léogane, located 40 km southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, was particularly affected, with damage caused by three flooded rivers. At least 20 people died there, according to the first relief report.

“They lost everything”

“The inhabitants are desperate. They have lost everything. The waters have ravaged their fields, washed away their livestock”, described to AFP the mayor of Léogane, Ernson Henry. Thousands of families are affected in his town, he added, stressing that the population urgently needed food, drinking water and medicine.

These floods also caused extensive material damage across the country, destroying hundreds of homes and damaging several roads. “Although it is not a cyclone or a tropical storm, the damage observed in the affected areas is considerable”deplored Jean-Martin Bauer, UN coordinator of humanitarian action in Haiti in a press release.