MGHH01: HAITI'S EMERGENCY RESPONSE CAPABILITIES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 001275

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR WHA/EX, WHA/CAR, S/CRS, AND INR/IAA
DEPT PLEASE ALSO PASS TO USAID FOR LAC/CAR
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS TO USOAS
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL HA
SUBJECT: MGHH01: HAITI'S EMERGENCY RESPONSE CAPABILITIES
TESTED BY RECENT HURRICANES

REF: A. PORT AU PRINCE 1252

B. PORT AU PRINCE 1250


1. (SBU) Summary: A coordinating committee of government
ministers established by the new Prime Minister September 7
is directing the overall Government of Haiti response to the
devastation caused by recent hurricanes. However, the
Ministry of Interior's Office of Civil Protection (Direction
de Protection Civile, French acronym DPC) continues to direct
the GOH's day-to-day crisis response, including managing
assets and coordinating international assistance at the
operational level. Despite these efforts, the scale of this
series of closely-spaced hurricane disasters, which have
affected nearly the entire country and cut key communication
links, has overwhelmed GOH disaster response capabilities.
This makes Haiti vitally dependent on assistance from
international organizations, foreign governments, and NGOs
for material assistance and the logistics to get supplies
distributed to those in need. End summary.

PM ANNOUNCES COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS TO DIRECT RESPONSE
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2. (SBU) Prime Minister Pierre-Louis announced in a televised
address the evening of September 7 that her government had
established a coordinating committee of six Ministers
(Interior, Public Health, Public Works, Agriculture, Social
Affairs, and Relations with the Parliament) to direct the
GOH's disaster response. The committee held a meeting that
same day attended by the Port-au-Prince director of the DPC,
according to a USAID contractor. The Minister of Interior
chaired the meeting, according to the same source, indicating
that the Coordinating Committee will not alter the Interior
Ministry and DPC's responsibility for day-to-day management
of the GOH disaster response. Although the Coordinating
Committee will likely have a decisive role in policy-level
decisions, Emboffs working on disaster assistance efforts
judge that the Ministry of Interior, through the DPC, will
probably continue to direct the GOH's limited crisis response
resources and coordinate assistance from international
organizations, foreign governments, and private aid
organizations.

OFFICE OF CIVIL PROTECTION TO MAINTAIN OPERATIONAL LEAD
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3. (SBU) The DPC maintains its central role in the GOH's
response to the disaster. The DPC remains the country's
primary aggregator of reports from the provinces on the
effects of the recent hurricanes; its most recent estimate is
that at least 114,000 persons have been displaced by the
flooding as of September 7. The DPC has a wide-ranging
mandate to alert the public to potential disasters, establish
shelters, and establish local committees to facilitate and
direct the intervention of the Haitian government in response
to natural disasters. Minister of Interior Paul Antoine
Bien-Aime said September 8 that the Ministry had already
spent 30 million Haitian gourdes (approximately 750,000 USD)
on relief efforts in Gonaives.


4. (SBU) The catastrophic nature of the damage caused by Fay,
Gustav, Hanna, and Ike, however, has impaired the ability of
the DPC to act. Impassable roads and washed-out bridges have
made many parts of the country inaccessible by land (ref A),
severely limiting the already modest capabilities of the DPC.
With no significant search-and-rescue assets of its own, the
understaffed agency is reliant on international assistance,
especially air and transportation assets, to reach the areas
hardest hit by the flooding.

MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORKS ASSESSES DAMAGE TO INFRASTRUCTURE
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5. (SBU) The Ministry of Public Works, Transport, and
Communication is also involved in the response to the crisis.
The Ministry's engineers and senior officials were planning
to meet the afternoon of September 8 to prepare an assessment
of damage to the country's infrastructure. The Ministry is
also responsible for the Peligre dam in the Center

PORT AU PR 00001275 002 OF 002


department, Haiti's largest hydroelectric facility. When the
dam threatened to overflow, authorities conducted a
controlled release of water from the artificial lake into the
Artibonite river over the weekend of September 6-7. The
Minister of Agriculture, Joanas Gue, has warned that further
releases would likely be necessary in the coming days.
Evacuations in affected areas have already begun.


6. (SBU) A bill pending before Haiti's legislature would
enhance the role of the DPC in coordinating disaster
assistance. Haiti's Chamber of Deputies on September 8
passed a law declaring a state of emergency. One of the
bill's articles would mandate that all NGOs coordinate their
disaster assistance with the DPC. The bill, which has not
yet been approved by the Senate, does not require NGOs to
channel their funding through the DPC.

MINISTRIES OF FINANCE, HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT ALSO CONTRIBUTE
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7. (SBU) The Ministry of Finance called on September 7 for
Haitians living overseas to contribute to relief efforts.
Jacques Nelson, the Secretary of State for Finance, told
Poloff September 8 that the GOH would accept any kind of
assistance but that the Ministry of Interior, through its
Office of Civil Protection (DPC),was best equipped to
receive any actual donations received. Nelson, echoing
Finance Minister Daniel Dorsainvil's comments September 7
that the hurricanes would cause a ''great shock'' to the
Haitian economy, said that the four recent tropical storms
would present an especially acute economic challenge to Haiti
and its government. Minister Dorsainvil said September 8
that a preliminary analysis indicated that the hurricane
damage to housing, cropland, livestock and other areas would
total ''tens of millions'' of U.S. dollars, and would reduce
economic growth for 2008 to well below 2.5 percent.


8. (SBU) Relief agencies are also working with the Ministry
of Health to support health centers in Gonaives and in other
affected areas. Representatives of the Pan American Health
Organization met with Ministry of Health and Ministry of
Environment officials on September 5 to discuss potential
disease-prevention activities (ref B).

COMMENT: EFFECTIVENESS OF GOH RESPONSE SHARPLY LIMITED
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9. (SBU) The recent hurricanes have overwhelmed GOH disaster
response capabilities. International organizations, foreign
governments, and NGOs have consequently stepped into the
breach in the provision of assistance to communities affected
by the flooding, and will continue to do so in the near term.
The USG will continue, in close coordination with the GOH
and its international partners, to direct aid to where it is
needed the most.
SANDERSON