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14th September, 2008
The United Nations has called for $US100 million to fund an appeal to alleviate the plight of around 800,000 people affected by a series of storms which have battered Haiti over the last three weeks.
At last 328 people have died in the storms which have devastated the Caribbean nation, already one of the world’s poorest nations and where more than half the population live on less than $US1 a day.
John Holmes, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, has described the situation as “extremely difficult”.
“Access remains a problem in much of the country because of the damage to the roads,” he said.
The World Health Organization has said the country faces a shortage of drugs and that the storms had also threatened the security of food supplies.
Meanwhile more than 2.5 million Cubans have been evacuated from their homes in recent weeks as a result of two hurricanes - Gustav and Ike - which struck the country within nine days of each other.
There, many hospitals, schools and entire communities are without electricity and hundreds of roads have been washed away.
Further north on the US Gulf Coast, millions in Texas were left without power and damage was estimated at more than $US8 billion when Hurricane Ike slammed into most populated section of the state’s coast on Saturday.
- DAVID ADAMS
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