Why did Hurricane Gustav affect Haiti so badly? Oxfam’s David Vinuales reports.

Since 2008’s devastating hurricane season, communication between the Haitian town of Miragoane and the capital, Port-au Prince, has not been the same. Rains flooded the roads between the two areas for a month and, one year on, the floods remain. Cars now have to take a detour, and people who cannot go around the local mountain need to take a taxi boat just to cross the road.

The city of Miragoane, in the country’s Nippes department, was hard hit last year. Hurricane Gustav struck badly. People died, houses were destroyed, crops were ruined - it was the usual scene of devastation in the aftermath of a hurricane.

You wonder why the area was so badly hit, until you see the way that the water carried stones and mud into the houses of local residents.

Swaziliya Pierre Louis, who is 54, has lived in Miragoane since she was a small child.  She says she cannot remember devastation as bad as that wreaked by Gustav.

 

“When Hurricane Gustav arrived the water came down from the hill and destroyed my house. I had to run away to a shelter”, she said.

So why was the impact of Gustav so terrible? To understand we must keep in mind the power of the wind-driven rain, and the poverty of the people in the town. But the positioning of the town also plays a huge factor - as a ravine runs straight into the sea through the middle of the town.

Oxfam has helped people such as Swazilliya after Gustav to recover as quickly as possible.

However there is a long road ahead, particularly when climate change is increasing the vulnerability of the poorest people in Haiti - the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere.

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