PORT-AU-PRINCE – Survivors of Haiti's January 12 earthquake are now facing a new problem: the arrival of spring rains. There had been no rain since the quake, but that won't last much longer.
Haiti's rainy season is deadly, and considering the condition in the devastated capital city, the early spring rains can trigger landslides and cause health issues in the makeshift shelters where over 500,000 people are living.
Rain started to fall in some parts of the nation, but the capital, where majority of the devastation occurred, has been spared so far. Rains could fall as early as the end of the month, while the hurricane season starts in June.
Authorities are racing against time to move the people into tents and outside the flood plains. Workers are also trying to clear debris from canals, riverbeds and ravines, so water from rains won't stagnate and turn the survivors' camps into breeding grounds for disease.
The Haitian government said it needs more money or tents if survivors are to be relocated. Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said the government does not have $60 million to buy some 100,000 tents.
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