Dear Friend,

I wanted to pass along information on the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaac's direct hit to Haiti.

Early Saturday morning the storm hit Haiti with heavy rains and severe winds, causing power outages, forcing rivers and streams to overflow, and making shelters and houses collapse, in some cases on top of their residents.

On my trip to Haiti last week I had the opportunity to visit Carrefour, near Port-au-Prince. Unfortunately, Carrefour is one of the areas hardest hit by this storm. Our country director in Haiti reports that emergency shelters are now leaking and flooding. Water is rushing through poorly constructed drainage, eroding precarious hillsides and ravines, and overwhelming sanitation systems.

CARE's staff in Haiti is hard at work addressing the immediate issues: shelter, clean water, and sanitation.

Yesterday we distributed tarps to 1,000 families in Carrefour, where Isaac blew off rooftops and caused flooding. We're planning to distribute shelter materials like tarps, ropes, and nails to an additional 3,000 families living inside and outside of camps. As residents of Carrefour began dealing with the rubble and damage from the storm, we also began giving out water purification tablets, soaps, shovels, wheelbarrows, picks, and cleaning supplies.

Despite all the damage, the situation could have been much worse had the storm reached full hurricane force when it made landfall. We're relieved that Haiti avoided that disastrous scenario.

As ever, we continue to do whatever is needed to help Haiti keep rebuilding back strong.

Sincerely,

Tolli Love
Vice President, CARE

P.S. CARE's commitment to communities in times of crisis extends well beyond immediate relief like clean water, shelter, water purification tablets, and medical care. In Haiti and around the world our staff help empower entire communities to rebuild and make them less vulnerable to natural disasters in the future. I hope you'll consider making a gift to support both our emergency response work and long-term poverty fighting programs all around the world.