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Home > Haiti Geography > Natural Hazards Natural Hazards Haiti faces a few natural hazards mainly because of Haiti's location in the caribbean.
Haiti lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and Haiti is subject to severe storms from June to October
These hurricanes and severe storms have devasting effects in Haiti. Haiti is also subject to occasional flooding and earthquakes
Hurricane Flora killed over 8000 people in 1963, making it the 6th most deadly hurricane ever.
An unnamed 1935 storm killed over 2000 people.
Hurricane Hazel killed over 1000 people back in 1954.
Hurricane Gordon killed over 1000 Haitians in 1994
Hurricane Georges killed over 400 while destroying 80% of all the crops in the country.
Hurricane Jeanne, in 2004, killed over 3,000 people in Haiti as a result of flooding and mudslides caused by the storm. Even though it did not strike Haiti directly, the storm was large enough to cause flooding and mudslides, particularly in the northwestern part of the country.
Why does Haiti suffer a seemingly disproportionate number of natural disasters?
Sadly the disasters pounding Haiti are not mainly natural disasters but human-caused disasters. because of deforrestation in Haiti there are no trees left to keep the large mass of mountain slopes in tact.
Because of that it doesn't even take a tropical storm to devastate Haiti. in May of 2004, three days of heavy rains from a tropical disturbance dumped more than 18 inches of rain in the mountains, triggering floods that killed over 2600 people.
This is mainly because only 1.4% of Haiti's forests remain.
Back in 1980, Haiti still had 25% of its forests and Haiti was able to withstand Hurricane emily in 1897 with no loss of life.
Based on an article "Haiti's Hurricane History" from wunderground.com
Once there are no trees left in Haiti, Haiti will become a natural deadly weapon to her own people killing thousands everytime there is a heavy rain fall. With the amounts of hurricanes we are getting these days. this is scary to even think about.
Haiti suffers from periodic droughts. Drought is currently plaguing countries in Central America and the Caribbean. in Haiti, droughts have destroyed a large percentage of the yearly harvest.
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