How Did the Haiti Flood Happen?
Major Rainfall Haiti’s deadly 2004 and 2009 floods were each caused by a tropical storms and hurricanes. Sharing an island with the Dominican Republic, Haiti is surrounded by the warm waters (approximately 26.5 degrees Celsius) that can supply the thermal energy necessary for the formation of thunderstorm clusters. While the Haitian environment has adapted to heavy seasonal rainfall, 5-foot deluges easily overpowered the island’s geography. In 2004, an edge of Hurricane Ivan saturated southwestern Haiti, setting the stage for tropical storm Jeanne. Because Jeanne moved slowly over Haiti, it had time to dump several feet of rain onto the already waterlogged land. In 2009, a back-to-back assault by tropical storms Gustav and Hanna submerged much of the region in nearly 7 feet of floodwater. Geography Haiti is an island, so one might wonder why the floodwater didn’t simply flow back into the ocean. While Haiti’s geography is fairly hilly around the coast and inland, many of the valleys ar
