Downgraded Tropical Storm Brings Rain To Haiti

MELISSA BLOCK, Host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

Tropical Storm Emily brought heavy rains to the Caribbean and it has now been downgraded. But it is still dumping lots of rain on Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, there's added concern because hundreds of thousands of people are still living in tents or makeshift shelters more than a year and a half after the massive earthquake there.

Earlier today, I spoke with Father Tom Streit. He's been working in Haiti for almost two decades on public health and tropical disease. He's also a professor at the University of Notre Dame. Father Streit spoke with me from the city of Leogane. He was standing in a camp filled with people, displaced by the earthquake.

TOM STREIT: People are living in improvised tarps, covered houses with some bricks and cinder blocks and tin in some tents - very much an improvised community.

BLOCK: And what are you hearing from people as Tropical Storm Emily works its way through the Caribbean, and there's talk about just massive, massive rainfall?

STREIT: Right. Right. The people here are, by and large, saying that their lives are in God's hands. So this is all too frequent a response when disaster looms. They say they don't have the resources to prepare in any way. I've seen some people taking apart a fence, a nearby fence, which was a wooden fence. And they're trying to use the pieces of wood to reinforce their improvised houses.

But that's about all the preparation people are doing, because survival is a day-to-day issue here. You really don't have the resources, financial or otherwise, to prepare for anything, let alone a big storm like this.

BLOCK: Yeah, we're hearing that that there could be as much as 20 inches of rain up in the mountainous area, which is a whole other problem given the deforestation in Haiti.

STREIT: Exactly. We're very concerned in this area because were on a floodplain, and we've had floods through this town about once a month over the last few years due to the deforestation. We haven't had a big storm like this with a direct hit for many years, so we're very concerned with that flooding that is likely, if not assured.

BLOCK: Father Streit, that you do on tropical disease, what are your special concerns knowing that a storm like this is headed your way?

STREIT: Well, in the aftermath of the flooding, there is great concern that the cholera which has been somewhat brought under control will resurge. That's a big concern. And then also in the aftermath of any big storm, big rainfall, of course you're worried about all the mosquito-borne diseases: malaria, filariasis and dengue fever.

But just general hygiene, of course, has already been degraded so much by people living in these tents, living on the dirt, having the rain push mud and debris just right underneath their homes. So often, when there's rain they have to stand up. They can't even continue sleeping if it's in the middle of the night.

When we look at the scope of the flooding that is anticipated with Emily, hopefully we won't get enough rain to make it a huge disaster. But the scope of this could be horrific, in terms of the number of people just completely unprotected from the flooding, not to mention the wind and the rain.

BLOCK: Father Tom Streit runs the Haiti program at the University of Notre Dame. He was speaking with us from the city of Leogane, outside Port-au-Prince.

Father Streit, it's good of you to talk with us. Thanks so much.

STREIT: Thank you, Melissa.

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