South Florida is already helping Haiti as Tropical Storm Isaac edges closer to the nation that is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.
At Food for the Poor's warehouse in Coconut Creek, they have been mobilizing and shipping out propane cookers, generators, and other supplies for months – including thousands of survival kits that can help keep a person alive for three days.
"We're well-versed with this, we have done it many times, before hurricane season starts we send container after container to the areas that are most likely to be hit, like Haiti, like Jamaica, like (the) Dominican Republic,” said Angel Aloma of the international relief and development organization.
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As staffers worked at the Coconut Creek warehouse Thursday, down in Haiti Food for the Poor’s 24 distribution centers were getting ready for whatever Isaac delivers. They loaded up on rice and beans.
Water is also a concern.
"Since under normal conditions they have a problem where drinking water is concerned, we are already preparing for container loads of drinking water to be able to send down there,” Aloma said.
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The country is still vulnerable from the January 2010 earthquake. More than half a million people still live in tents. Flooding and cholera are huge concerns.
Aloma explained that Haiti is "80 percent deforested, so in certain areas, all it needs is two hours of rain and you start having mudslides.”
That is why in 2004, with Tropical Storm Jeanne, “we had the situation in Gonaives where over 3,000 people lost their lives and it wasn’t even a hurricane, it was just a tropical storm,” Aloma said.
