Flood wall on Port au Piment River breached in Oct 2011, sending waters cascading into villages.
Partnership Framework Supports Haiti Flood Relief
By Alex Fischer and Marc Levy
Published on Earth Institute website, Oct 19, 2011
PART ONE:
Recent heavy rains and consequent flooding in Haiti’s Côte Sud region—the site of the Côte Sud Initiative (CSI) at Port-à-Piment, designated as the first Millennium Village in the Western Hemisphere—required the not-yet fully formed project team to leverage the CSI partnership framework to help coordinate an immediate and ultimately lifesaving emergency response. See the original story for photos and charts, at the link above.
When the Earth Institute Haiti team received an urgent email on October 10th—“We are in day three of heavy rains here. The river is about to breach the new retaining wall in the town of Port-à-Piment”—it was also the first test of the team and CSI project partnership.
The email was from local M.D. Lino Roberto Georges, the Millennium Village Health Sector lead and resident of the town of Port-à-Piment. Rains had quickly turned heavy and continuous, causing severe flooding in the Côte Sud region. Emails from Georges later that day depicted a dire situation in the village and a concern that once again, long-term development objectives would be undermined and sacrificed for immediate emergency needs. Dr. Jean Rouchon, senior health advisor for the Center for Global Health and Economic Development, responded by email:
It is clear that we are facing two major catastrophes in Port-a-Piment and in Rendel. Severe flooding threatens communities and the rains are quickly spreading the deadly outbreak of cholera. Both disasters necessitate quick actions and large investments beyond the capacity of the current MVP budgets.
Chart: This figure represents the rainfall pattern in the watershed over the three days of rain that caused the flooding in the Côte Sud region, from October 9 to 11, 2011. The continuous real-time rain data provided by rain gauges installed in the Port-à-Piment watershed are a vital component of the research and monitoring of the CSI and Port-à-Piment MVP.
A few minutes after the first email came in, Wade McGillis, Lamont-Doherty associate research professor and lead research hydrologist for the CSI, using a satellite-linked weather station, revealed sobering data: 4 inches of rain had fallen within a 24-hour span. The weather station, installed in Port-à-Piment in 2010, provides constant climate condition data via the Web.
Because the terrain in Port-à-Piment is steep and heavily degraded, heavy rainfall means large volumes of water cascade down a narrow passage, endangering people, facilities, and crops. For this region of Haiti, 4 inches in a single day is potentially deadly. Over the three consecutive days of heavy rains, the region received more than 12 inches of rain—three times that already dangerous amount fallen.
Rapid Flooding Cuts Off Access to the Upper Watershed
The Côte Sud region, the coast of Haiti’s southern peninsula, is a historically vulnerable flood region. The Millennium Village Project in Port-á-Piment (MVP), one of the multiple watersheds in this region being studied as part of the Côte Sud Initiative, was originally identified as one of the high-risk zones for flooding and erosion. Within a day of heavy rain, the rivers swelled and the upper watershed areas were cut off from communication and transportation. People were unable to cross the raging waters to reach medical services and unable to climb the mountains to bring critical supplies. Cholera cases, already prevalent and on the rise in the area, reportedly multiplied.
Map: Medical facilities that address the public health needs of the population are located throughout the CSI intervention region. Following the outbreak of cholera in Haiti in 2011, more Cholera Treatment Centers (CTCs) have proven crucial in reaching more of the population. But after the October floods, less accessible treatment centers were stranded with low supplies. Credit: CIESIN
Local Efforts Feed Larger Relief Response
Extreme flooding in the town of Port-à-Piment, the primary urban center of the watershed. Towns along the river, particularly in the lower portions of the watershed, are particularly vulnerable to extremely rapid and dangerous flooding.
By the end of the second day of rains, the Government of Haiti’s emergency response system was activated at the regional level, with a call for immediate meetings to coordinate relief. While UNOPS and the Catholic Relief Services were mobilizing supplies and support, MVP Health Lead Dr. Georges was coordinating local communication of needs and preparing for potential evacuations. In coordination with the local civil protection committee, he was also providing comprehensive information to authorities, conducting rapid needs assessments of clinics and damages in Port-a-Piment watershed, and was acting as the critical link to information from the upper watershed town of Rendel. Dr. Georges was the main source of reporting to the authorities and the conduit for identifying critical needs such as IV fluids for cholera patients, food shortages in upper watershed areas, and specific medical supplies. Thirty-six hours after the upper areas were cut off by the river, he had enough power in his phone left to email regarding a nurse’s plea for help: “…The nurse in charge at Rendel called. She is panicking. As mentioned in the last emails, unfortunately, she has no more IV Fluids and above all it starts raining again at Rendel. The situation is very critical. They need URGENT help.”
Photo: The small village of Rendel, deep in the heart of the watershed, was completely isolated by the flooding of the river. With feeble cell service and the only way in and out of town washed away, Rendel and its Cholera Treatment Center were stranded, in dire need of aid and supplies.
Once Georges established contact with the Government of Haiti and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) — the lead organization within the CSI partnership for managing disaster response and the main NGO in the south appointed by the government to coordinate services in these situations—they were able to use the information he provided to quickly organize relief efforts. The assessments sent by cellphone photos and emails from MVP teams were passed to CRS. Dr. Jude Bannatte, CRS program director, ensured medical equipment and food were available to be distributed in the emergency context and maintained close coordination with the government. UNOPS Project Coordinator Jacqueline Fabius organized UN helicopter support to deliver these life-saving supplies.
This successful coordinated effort came directly out of the partnership framework of the Côte Sud Initiative and demonstrates the critical role the partnership framework can play for local focal points to coordinate information with regional programs.
This is the first of a two-part blog. Part II follows: lessons learned from a partnership-driven collaborative response, as well as an analysis of the needs for immediate, medium, and long-term disaster response.
Partnership in Action: Lessons Learned Following Haiti Floods
Published on Earth Institute, Oct 21, 2011
By Alex Fischer and Marc Levy. Part 2 of a two-part blog.
Despite Haiti’s continued, and arguably increasing, disaster vulnerability, the country lacks advanced flood modeling and early warning systems. The communities at the base of the watersheds “sleep with their eyes open” because of historically ingrained fear and experience that even small amounts of precipitation in the upper elevations may result in major flooding within a few hours.
Photo: After days of heavy rain, a flood wall of the Port-à-Piment river is breached. Heavy rainfall over the extended period October 9-11 increased the amount of water flowing down the mountains, causing the rivers to overflow their banks and destroy what lay in their paths, from agricultural fields to homes to infrastructure.
The floods this past week gave credence to this fear. The MVP team, including local technical teams from CRS, ORE and local community-based organizations, with support from UNOPS and UNEP and the Earth Institute’s research teams, is making sustained, integrated interventions towards not only reducing vulnerability but also increasing local capacity for disaster preparedness and resiliency.
The flooding caused both direct and indirect impacts. The CSI team’s rapid assessments identified a loss of crops and livestock, significant landslides, isolation of villages and homes due to destroyed roads, and destruction of recently completed flood protection infrastructure. The indirect impacts include the potential for increased malnutrition and further cholera outbreaks.
Photo: A boy stands in front of his home after the floods have receded, in Coteaux. There, fast-moving flood waters brought silt and debris along with them. After the waters receded, the heavy rubble was left behind.
Key “Lessons Learned”/ Possible Future Applications
Short-term responses:
1. Emergency Communication: Improve the emergency communication plan and tools in the Côte Sud area. With limited cell phone service in the higher elevations, short-wave radio might be an affordable emergency communication system for these situations.
2. Damage Assessments : Conduct immediate damage and needs assessments through extension agents and local disaster protection committees. This can be done quickly and cheaply through SMS based reporting tools, already being designed and distributed through the CSI partnership. This can be built from systems like the agricultural monitoring project that the Earth Institute’s Center for Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment and Modi Research Group are developing with CSI partners.
3.Health and Survival: Continue provision and coordination of health care and emergency food supplies for remote populations. The CSI Support Programme facilitated the mobilization of helicopter missions, supplying health kits to the most remote areas in the watershed. The multi-partner CSI health team was fully part of the humanitarian effort in support to the Ministry of Health (MSPP).
4.Infrastructure and access: Continue close coordination, technical support, and assistance between the CSI infrastructure sector and the Haitian Ministry of Public Works in assessing post-flood structural needs, including rehabilitation of roads. CSI is also prepared to assist the affected region by guiding and directing a team of engineers who would be sent by MINUSTAH.
5.Hunger Monitoring: Monitor food insecurity hotspots and potential secondary impacts from flooding on loss of crops and overall food security.
Photo: Here in Les Anglais, as in other areas overwhelmed by flood damage and an increasing need for medical and emergency supplies, deliveries were coordinated by CSI partners and the UN and managed on the ground by workers of the Cholera Treatment Centers and the National Police.
Medium-Term Responses:
1. Flood Modeling: Improve modeling and monitoring of rainfall and surface water to integrate into early warning systems. The spatial variation of rainfall and models of surface water response to rainfall is critical for improved early warning. Professor Wade McGillis and his teams are currently working on these systems.
2. Emergency Supplies: Build warehouses and storage units for emergency supplies and ensure proper supply management to refill them before potential heavy rainfall events. Coordinate this through local protection committees and agricultural cooperatives.
3. Emergency Information Communications: Use rapid SMS or hand-held device to prepare and train local Civil Protection Committees to report damage and needs during emergency events. Such devices can send photos and simple surveys, providing critical support to coordination and communication efforts.
Photo: Major flooding of the Anglais river caused severe erosion of the river's banks, straining the already fragile ecosystem. Here, precious trees, whose roots are critical in preventing mass erosion, are carried away by the floods.
Long-Term Responses
1. Using community mapping and high-resolution spatial analysis, target long-term ecosystem restoration projects and infrastructure investments to systematically reduce erosion across the entire watershed.
This is the second of a two-part blog. Part I discussed the severe flooding in southwest Haiti in the CSI area, as well as the successful collaboration of the CSI partnership and the Government of Haiti as they mobilized to gather information and address needs in the face of potential disaster.
The Côte Sud Initiative is a major collaboration between the United Nations, the Earth Institute, and the Government of Haiti that works on a regional level to implement sustainable approaches to solve some of the country’s most pressing challenges: post-disaster recovery, economic and social development, environmental stabilization and restoration, and disaster risk management. Working in tandem with regional efforts is the Port-à-Piment Millennium Village, the first Millennium Village Project in the Western Hemisphere, which aims to demonstrate the power of collaborative thematic and integrated approaches to development from the local to the regional scale. The CSI and MVP are components of the Haiti Regeneration Initiative. For more information, visit www.haitiregeneration.org.
Alex Fischer is program manager for Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and Cote Sud Initiative (CSI) technical and research coordinator. Marc Levy is CIESIN deputy director and principal investigator for Earth Institute research projects in the CSI.