CWS appeal: Caribbean storms
December 21, 2007
Noel struck the Caribbean in late October as a slow-moving tropical storm, growing into a Category-1 hurricane, leaving 118 people dead. Hardest-hit were the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where 116 people were killed in floods and landslides ?- 87 in the DR alone.
In the DR, some 16, 712 houses were affected, of which 737 were completely destroyed. The numbers of people displaced is estimated to exceed 66, 800. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in temporary shelters are causing intestinal diseases and conjunctivitis. Within the communities affected, with the unprecedented influx of additional people into homes, overstretched hygienic conditions are also likely to result in diseases.
Dozens of communities are still cut off from assistance due to swollen rivers and broken bridges and communities in the southern provinces of Barahona and Azua still do not have electricity and telecommunications.
Lack of clean drinking water is also a problem due to the flooding and damaged pipes and aqueducts, and pumping stations without electricity. Flooding has also affected plantain, rice, fruit tree and banana crops.
CWS RESPONSE
Church World Service assisted DR partners in assessments following the disaster, and as noted in a Nov. 2 initial appeal, CWS is supporting efforts of partner Grupo de Pastores Interdenominacionales (GPI), to assist 679 persons living in sugar cane plantation areas known as "bateyes" in the border areas of Haiti and the DR.
With this expanded appeal, CWS support is being widened to include long-time CWS partner Social Services of the Dominican Churches (SSID). (CWS also provided SSID with a shipment of School Kits, CWS Hygiene Kits, toothpaste, canned chicken, water jugs, Kids Kits and lightweight blankets.)
The initial SSID response has included distribution of food rations, bottled water, bedding and basic medicines in the provinces of San Juan and Barahona (southwest) and Monte Plata (east).
Now SSID, together with its implementing partners GPI and PROCARIBE, is providing more than 1,000 families in 25 communities food rations, hygiene packets, school kits, clothes and mattresses, medical care and drinking water. In addition, SSID intends to help 20 families with the construction of new housing and 60 families to repair their homes, as well as with the rehabilitation of crop and food production for some 450 families. In addition, SSID will provide training to community organizations in principles of emergency and risk management and SPHERE principles.
The project completion for the SSID work is expected to be May 31.
NOTE: This provides additional information for an initial appeal issued Nov. 2 , with CWS anticipating possible additional information after Jan. 1 about efforts in the DR and Haiti that might include a response to Tropical Storm Olga, a December storm that also hit the Caribbean.
Contributions to support this emergency appeal may be made online, sent to your denomination, or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. Please designate: 2007 Caribbean Storms (Appeal #6759).
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net