VZCZCXRO8906
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #1275/01 2532024
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 092024Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8805
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 2048
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1824
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1609

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 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶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