Haitian tent cities brace for huge tropical storm

Tens of thousands of Haitians living in squalid makeshift camps braced Wednesday for Tropical Storm Emily set to send up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain cascading down muddy, bare hillsides. US weather experts warned the rains "could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides" compounding the misery for the impoverished Caribbean nation still recovering from a January 2010 earthquake. Up to 20 inches of rain could be dumped on isolated areas of Haiti with accumulations of some six to 12 inches (15-30 centimeters), the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned. At 1500 GMT, the storm was some 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Santo Domingo, capital of Haiti's wealthier eastern neighbor, the Dominican Republic, with which it shares the island of Hispaniola. It was packing winds of about 50 miles an hour (85 kilometers), moving about 14 miles an hour (22 kilometers) and forecast to swing northwest to take a direct swipe across most of Haiti, before hitting southeastern Cuba. Coastal areas were warned of a storm surge which will raise water levels by one to two feet and be "accompanied by large and dangerous waves." Haitian officials have raised a red alert and called for the evacuations of tent cities at risk, many perched on hillsides long since stripped bare of any trees, chopped down to use as fuel and building materials. Haiti's weather service chief Ronald Semelfort said heavy rains could start pounding the country late Wednesday, warning it would be "a great danger for the country still fragile from the January 2010 earthquake." Shipping has been banned along the southern coast, and Semelfort said "all Haiti's regions will be affected by the tropical storm Emily." Haiti has also been battling an outbreak of cholera, which caused 5,506 deaths and 363,117 diagnosed cases. A team of Cuban doctors in the country were on standby Wednesday to prevent any further outbreaks of the water-borne disease. In Dominican Republic, a tourist hotspot, a maximum red alert has been sounded across six provinces, and all water and outdoor leisure activities suspended. The tropical storm warning was also in effect for eastern Cuba, the southeastern Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos islands, US weather experts said. Tens of thousands of Haitians remain in precarious makeshift camps more than 18 months after the quake, which killed an estimated 225,000 people. Authorities were spreading the word and "are asking people in refugee camps... to evacuate vulnerable locations," said Haiti's civil defense chief Alta Jean-Baptiste. In the past Haiti has witnessed dozens of deadly landslides, with many of the hills which surround the capital stripped bare of trees. "The center of Emily will move across Hispaniola late today and tonight and into the southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos islands on Thursday," the NHC said. The Dominican Republic has declared mandatory evacuations in a dozen villages near dams and urged residents to take precautions in other areas. "Residents in high-risk areas, who live next to rivers, streams and creeks... should take precautions and be aware of the recommendations of the relief agencies," the government's office of emergency services said. In the Pacific Ocean, meanwhile, Hurricane Eugene -- a category three storm -- was churning away but still posed no threat to land, the NHC said. The NHC said Eugene was still a "major hurricane" but was expected to weaken later Wednesday.