As Hurricane Gustav, a Category 2 storm with 110-mph (177 km/h) winds, approaches landfall in southeastern Louisiana, ADRA is in contact with its local partners throughout the region preparing to provide immediate assistance to communities located directly on the path of this powerful storm.
According to forecasters, Hurricane Gustav, which killed at least 85 people as it devastated parts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands, is expected to make landfall at midday today, September 1, west of New Orleans, Louisiana, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. The U.S. Geological Survey says Gustav has already caused an almost 9-foot (2.7 m) storm surge about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of New Orleans. By some estimates, floodwaters could rise between 12 to 16 feet (3.6 to 4.8 meters) in coastline areas near landfall.
While ADRA operates emergency management programs overseas, it works through local organizations and trusted partners to provide assistance when a disaster strikes in the Unites States. Presently, ADRA is evaluating the current situation in order to provide rapid and effective assistance the moment it is needed.
Hurricane Gustav comes three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast killing more than 1,800 people and causing at the time $81.2 billion in damage, the costliest storm in U.S history. Following the disaster, ADRA assisted with relief efforts, providing more than $1 million worth of assistance, including clean water, food, shelter, and basic living supplies.
Gustav, a tropical depression that rapidly gained hurricane strength between August 25 and 26, made landfall on Haiti at approximately 1:00 pm near the city of Jacmel, located on the southern coast, before moving across the Gulf of Gonâve. According to the Civil Protection Directorate (DPC), the storm left 59 dead, 7 missing, 22 injured, with some 3,500 families, or 20,000 people, affected. However, due to limited access to many communities, the total number of affected could reach 25,000 to 30,000. Among the worst hit departments are the Sud-Est, Sud, Nippes, Ouest, Grand’Anse, Artibonite, and Centre where approximately 1,300 houses were destroyed and 2,200 damaged.
“The majority of victims died when their houses collapsed, or were killed by falling trees. Others drowned when they tried to cross swollen rivers,” civil protection director Alta Jean-Baptiste told reporters in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
ADRA’s office in Haiti immediately responded by providing basic food items such as rice, beans, and vegetable meat products to more than 250 sheltered families in the communes of Petit-Goâve and Jacmel, which took the brunt of the hurricane force. Currently, ADRA is working with the Ministry of the Interior’s Office of Territorial Collectivities, which is coordinating the national emergency response.
In neighboring Dominican Republic, a mudslide buried a home in Santo Domingo killing eight people and leaving two injured, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Authorities confirmed that some 6,255 people were evacuated and at least 1,239 homes were damaged and 12 destroyed. Some 50 communities still remain isolated.
In Jamaica, where flooding cut many roads, and 70-mph winds ripped roofs from houses and toppled trees, 72 communities reported being affected, according to OCHA. The majority of the reports came from the parishes of St. Catherine, Kingston, Spanish Town, and St. Andrew. At least 96 shelters housed a total of 1,605 people, local disaster authorities reported. Some communities in the Hope River Valley and east of the Hope River remain partially isolated, as three bridges sustained damage during the storm. The Ministry of Agriculture reported heavy banana crop losses, as 70 percent of the crop in St. Mary and 100 percent in St. Thomas were destroyed.
On August 29, authorities in Cuba evacuated approximately 73,000 people from the country’s tobacco-growing western tip, particularly the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguín, Las Tunas, and Guantánamo. On August 30, as the storm grew stronger, an additional 190,000 people were ordered to evacuate in the low-lying province of Pinar del Río.
In the United States, about 1.9 million of Louisiana’s 2 million coastal residents had fled inland by late Sunday, August 31, making this the largest evacuation in state history, according to Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. In New Orleans alone, more than 200,000 people were evacuated, leaving just 10,000 people in the city.
Gustav, the third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, registered sustained wind speeds of 115 mph (185 km/h) at 7 a.m., September 1, at 85 miles (135 km) south of New Orleans, as it moved at 16 mph (26 km/h) on a northwesterly direction.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna, the eighth named tropical storm of 2008, formed east-northeast of the Leeward Islands on August 28. It is currently about 100 miles (160 km) east of the Bahamas and is expected to move northeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday, September 1. It could become a hurricane, according to forecasters.
To ensure that only specifically needed items are provided and to enable their immediate purchase, only monetary donations are being accepted at this time. To send your contribution to ADRA’s Emergency Response Fund, please donate online or on 0800 4 999 111