HAITI - No shelter from the storm for Haiti quake victims

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP):

A hurricane season predicted to be one of the wettest on record opens today in the Caribbean, where hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake victims have only tarps or fraying tents to protect them in a major storm.

The Haitian government, which had five months to prepare, says it is still working on emergency and evacuation plans. But it is unclear where people will go, with many churches, schools and other potential shelters toppled by the quake.

Since the January 12 earthquake killed up to 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless, there has been little progress on clearing rubble so people can return to their neighbourhoods or building sturdier shelters.

Dr Jean Pape, one of the country's most prominent public health experts, estimates that only one per cent of the masses stuck in dangerous flood zones have been relocated.

"There's no give here. Time is just running out," said Mark L. Schneider, senior vice-president of the International Crisis Group. "There's no question that large numbers, tens of thousands, are going to be in situations of misery when the rains come."

Already, the moderate spring rains that drench Port-au-Prince almost daily leave camp residents up to their knees in putrid water.

Claudia Toussaint, a 24-year-old camped near a golf course, dug a shallow channel in the dirt under her tarp in a futile effort to keep water away from her mattress.

"When it rains, we don't have anywhere to go, we don't have anywhere to sleep," she said. "We just get soaked."

Disease-carrying mosquitoes

The problem goes beyond more misery in about 1,200 temporary camps. Vast numbers of people are exposed to disease-carrying mosquitoes. Serious flooding could cause mass casualties even with thousands of aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers present.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted as many as 23 named tropical storms, which would make this season one of the more active on record. The quake has forced Haiti to update its storm contingency plans, said Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, including positioning emergency food and equipment.

A response team has been set up to deal with rain emergencies in camps.

"We don't need a hurricane to have problems in Haiti, we just need three or four days of continuous rain to have serious problems," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.