Hurricane Matthew

Emergency relief organisation Medair is sending an emergency response team to Haiti to assist those impacted by Hurricane Matthew.

Lausanne, Switzerland – October 5, 2016  ̶  Hurricane Matthew struck western Haiti on Tuesday 4 October with devastating force; one of the most powerful storms to hit the country in more than 50 years.

Medair has been carefully monitoring the situation since the beginning to assess how best to meet the needs of people in heavily affected and hard-to-reach areas. The Medair team will arrive in Port-au-Prince by end of day tomorrow.

“This hurricane is likely to have catastrophic consequences for thousands of Haitian families”, said Manuel Jagourd, Head of Medair’s Emergency Response Team. “They will need shelter and safe drinking water. In those types of context, there is always the danger of a cholera outbreak. Consequently, we are deploying a team to assess how best we can provide assistance as soon as possible and participate in recovery efforts.”

Medair worked in Haiti from January 2010, responding to the earthquake, to February 2016, providing shelter and sanitation facilities to thousands of people who lost their homes.

Medair is an international relief agency headquartered in Switzerland. We help people who are suffering in remote and devastated communities around the world survive crises and recover with dignity, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or nationality.