- Title: Haitians hunker down in shelters as Irma lashes Hispaniola
- Date: 7th September 2017
- Summary: CAP-HAITIEN, HAITI (SEPTEMBER 7, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HAITIAN WOMAN IN SHELTER NEAR REGISTRATION TABLE BAG ON THE GROUND IN SHELTER CIVIL PROTECTION EMPLOYEES GATHERED IN SHELTER HAITIAN WOMAN SITTING IN SHELTER HAITIAN WOMAN EATING IN SHELTER WITH CHILDREN NEXT TO HER (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) HAITIAN WOMAN TAKING REFUGE IN SHELTER, JOSETTE FILS-AIME, SAYING: "In my neighbourhood there is a lot of water. When it rains the water rises. That's why we moved. They said that we should evacuate from the water and look for a place to shelter. And we have been here since the morning. We haven't had anything but water, but I wasn't here when they gave out water. We brought our sheets." WOMAN IN SHELTER UNPACKING THINGS FROM A BAG CHILD SLEEPING CHILD UNDER SHEET PERSON LYING ON SHEET IN SHELTER WOMAN HOLDING CHILD IN SHELTER VARIOUS OF CIVIL PROTECTION WORKERS IN SHELTER PERSON RECEIVING CARTONS OF FOOD IN SHELTER VARIOUS OF MEN EATING IN SHELTER (SOUNDBITE) (Creole) HAITIAN MAN TAKING REFUGE IN SHELTER, TELIUS GUSTAVE, SAYING: "This old man is blind. We come from the same neighbourhood. My mother has five children. She left. I came here before her. I told her that should could find me here in the shelter but so far I haven't seen her or her five children." MEN EATING
- Embargoed: 22nd September 2017 00:56
- Keywords: Hurricane Irma Atlantic storm Category 4
- Location: CAP-HAITIEN, HAITI
- City: CAP-HAITIEN, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Wind/Hurricane/Typhoons/Tornadoes
- Reuters ID: LVA0016XLN70N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Haitians hunkered down in shelters in the northern city of Cap-Haitien on Thursday (September 7) as Hurricane Irma lashed Hispaniola.
Barreling through the Caribbean, the "extremely dangerous" core of Irma was predicted to strike northern Haiti and the Dominican Republic as well as the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas on Thursday with winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The eye of Irma, a Category 5 storm, passed over the northern Virgin Islands on Wednesday after crossing the half-French, half-Dutch island of St. Martin and the Dutch islands of Saba and Sint Eustasius. Category 5 is the highest hurricane ranking used by U.S. forecasters.
Haitian authorities put the nation on alert, closing schools, moving people to shelters and mobilising 18,000 civil and Red Cross volunteers backed by police and the military.
Local residents straggled into shelters with their families, seeking food and water and looking for friends and relatives.
Irma is expected to bring "major consequences" to northern Haiti, which also has suffered three years of drought, said Ronald Tran Ba Huy, Haiti country director for the U.N World Food Programme (WFP).
The WFP said it has food supplies across Haiti, a nation of 10.8 million people, for 150,000 people for one month, and trucks carrying emergency food aid to northern Haiti would be able to reach 40,000 people immediately. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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