Caribbean weather taskforce to provide storm forecasts for Haiti

HAMILTON, Bermuda (AFP) — Caribbean weather experts launched a task force yesterday to provide Haiti storm forecasts amid fears the 2010 hurricane season could devastate the country's already fragile infrastructure.

French-speaking meteorologists based in Martinique will provide briefings, while Cuba and Jamaica will be asked to send satellite radar imagery, hurricane experts said at the close of a five-day conference in Bermuda.

Several other countries offered storm tracking and communications equipment as well as personnel to rebuild the quake-ravaged island's forecasting capability.

The January 12 earthquake left at least 220,000 people dead and more than one million homeless, living in tents or makeshift shelters that make them especially vulnerable to even minor storms.

Experts hope to have a weather service in place by April when the rainy season begins.

Ronald Semelfort, director of Haiti's Met Service, said most of the camps that have sprung up across the capital could not resist even 10 millimetres (0.3 inches) of rainfall.

"There are a good many people living in dangerous shelters, in tents --these people are out in the open. They are extremely vulnerable to wind and rain," he said.

Jean Noel Degrace, of Meteo France, headed up the task force on Haiti at this week's conference. If a hurricane struck the impoverished Caribbean country this year, it would be devastating, he said.

"Two weeks ago, there was flooding from a cold front. It was a very low amount of rain, but 18 or 20 more people were killed. You can only imagine what a hurricane would do," said Degrace.

He said the immediate priority was to provide Haiti with the necessary technology and expertise to predict storms.

"It is really urgent to ensure Haiti gets really good watches and warnings" of storm activity, as well as the ability to run a daily forecasting service with proper facilities and communications, he said.

"We would like to be sure that they are able to access data on observations and forecasts, radar imagery, charts, watches and warnings."

With 80 per cent of the population without access to television or radio, communicating forecasts to the public is also a major concern.

Bill Read, head of the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre, said Haiti is "going to have the challenge of warning the people that a storm is coming. We don't know where their infrastructure is going to be by then, so that is up in the air."

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