PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Wednesday August 3, 2011 – Evacuations have been ordered across Haiti as Tropical Storm Emily continues on track to pass across the island late today, bringing heavy rains that Director of the National Meteorological Centre Ronald Semelfort warned represents “a great danger for the country still fragile from the January 2010 earthquake.”
A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the island, as well as neighbouring Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico which the storm brushed past yesterday, southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The tropical storm watch for the U.S Virgin Islands has been discontinued.
This is sad news. Haiti has been through more than most can imagine. I hope it won’t hit the island too severely. Unfortunately, when this time of year comes around, some islands have get hit, and many will only experience relatively minor bad weather. So things go.
I also hope no barbarian will open his or her mouth to claim that Haiti deserves to be hit by natural disasters. That disgusting evangelist Pat Robertson had the nerve to say that Haiti had made “a pact with the devil” that it was paying for by being hit with the earthquake; he also claimed that Hurricane Katrina was similar punishment for Americans. Such people are sick, inhumane, and likely mad. We do not need to hear any such comments in Dominica, especially not about Haiti. It is a country plagued by problems, yes, but claiming that it deserves to be destroyed by earthquakes and hurricanes–this is not the way to help anyone.