OCHA Situation Report No. 1
Caribbean: Tropical Storm Gustav
29 August 2008


Source:
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

This situation report is based on information received from, the UN 
Emergency Technical Team (UNETT) in the affected countries, the Regional 
Office in Panama and the National Hurricane Centre.

HIGHLIGHTS

- Tropical storm "Gustav" has already claimed the lives of 23 people in 
Haiti and the Dominican Republic and affected thousand of persons.

- There has been no request for international assistance and 
preparedness and coordination is on going well in the region.


SITUATION

1. On August 25th, a tropical depression in the Caribbean strengthened 
into Tropical Storm "Gustav", and on August 26th rapidly strengthened into 
category 1 Hurricane. Hurricane "Gustav" made landfall in Haiti at 
approximately 1:00 pm at about 16km from the city of Jacmel. After 
weakening to a tropical storm, "Gustav" shifted course slightly on 28 
August morning.

2. "Gustav" is likely to regain hurricane strength within the next day or 
two. On August 28th, at 5:00 p.m. the center of tropical storm "Gustav" 
was located near latitude about 25 km East-Northeast of Kingston Jamaica 
and about 505 km East-Southeast of Grand Cayman. "Gustav" is expected to 
produce total rain accumulations of six to twelve inches of rain over 
Hispaniola, eastern Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

HAITI

3. Tropical storm "Gustav" has already left Haiti and the alert has been 
lifted by the Haitian Government. "Gustav" claimed the lives of 15 
persons, injured 9 with 4 people missing. Around 3,000 people were 
affected and 6,299 people are in shelters. Some 307 houses were destroyed. 
Information is still incomplete due to bad weather and destroyed 
infrastructure that are preventing access. Damage in Port-au-Prince does 
not seem to be as extensive as in the past due to adequate preparedness

4. The most affected departments are the South-East, South, Nippes, West, 
Grand-Anse, Artibonite and Centre.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

5. In the Dominican Republic, the storm left 8 people dead following a 
mudslide that buried a home in Santo Domingo. Two persons were injured. 
Authorities said 5,900 people were evacuated from their homes and more 
than 1,192 homes were damaged. Already some are returning to their homes 
from the 8 activated shelters and only 759 people remain in shelters. 
Pedernales has been totally evacuated as this province was expected to be 
the most affected. Several communities in these provinces, such as Bombita 
and Jaquimeyes in Barahona, and El Rosario in Azua have been totally 
flooded.

CUBA

6. On August 26th, the Civil Defense of Cuba ordered a preventive 
evacuation for people and livestock at risk in the five eastern provinces, 
which includes Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguin and Las Tunas (alert 
phase), while in Camaguey (East) and Ciego de Avila ( Centre) it is 
monitoring the situation and risk areas for possible evacuations 
(informative phase). The National Information Agency (AIN) and Radio 
Rebelde reported that evacuations began in the mountainous areas of 
Santiago de Cuba. The IFRC PADRU (Panamerican Disaster Response Unit) in 
Panama has two disaster management delegates on stand-by for deployment to 
Cuba if needed. Some 73,000 people were already evacuated from Santiago de 
Cuba, Granma, Holguin, Guantanamo and Las Tunas. The United Nations system 
is also closely monitors the situation.

JAMAICA

7. A hurricane warning is in effect in Jamaica. On August 26th, national 
emergency operation centres and parish emergency operation centres were 
activated. Committees have been meeting over the past two days, assessing 
the situation on a daily basis and fine-tuning plans of action. The 
National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) will continue to closely 
monitor the progress of "Gustav" while the UNETT has been activated.

CAYMAN ISLANDS

8. The Cayman Islands remain under a hurricane watch. This means that 
hurricane conditions could begin to affect the Islands within 30 hours.

Attachments:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/retrieveattachments?openagent&docid=141DD8EC016EBF4B492574B400186DFA&file=Full_Report.pdf


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International             web: www.cidi.org
.  Disaster Information         listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
.                             guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Caribbean: Gustav             www.cidi.org/incident/caribstorms-08h