Rains add new misery to quake-hit Haiti

Haitian authorities have warned the rainy season is now the greatest looming threat facing the impoverished Caribbean country.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, February 11, 2010 (AFP) - Haitians were awakened Thursday by the first heavy rain since a massive earthquake four weeks ago adding to the misery of hundreds of thousands of people living in flimsy homemade shelters.

The downpour started before dawn in a city jammed with encampments of homeless people, many left with only the barest covering against the elements since the January 12 quake.

"I got up with the first drops, gathered my mat and stood waiting for the rain to pass," said Pierre Sandor, 33, who has been living under a blanket held up by sticks, with hundreds of other families in the Laboul camp in eastern Port-au-Prince.

In plazas taken over by people who lost their houses, children could be seen playing in the rain and gathering water in pails, jugs or whatever other receptacles were at hand.

Haitian authorities have warned the rainy season is now the greatest looming threat facing the impoverished Caribbean country in the wake of the 7.0-magnitude quake.

An estimated 1.2 million people have been left homeless, large parts of the Haitian capital were destroyed, and more than 200,000 people lost their lives in the cataclysm.

So far, an estimated 50,000 families, or about 272,000 people, have received emergency materials to build their own shelters, the UN office that coordinates humanitarian affairs said.