This year’s harvest of spring crops, which normally accounts for 60 percent of nationwide crop production, will be smaller than usual due to the drought. Without imports and food aid, food availability will be 20 to 40 percent lower than usual between July and September.
According to the Civil Defense Agency report, the rec ent rains inundating the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area claimed more than twenty lives. Destitute area residents living in precarious conditions are especially hard hit by these types of extreme weather conditions. Thus, they will remain food-insecure and will continue to be classified in phases 2 or 3 of the IPC acute food insecurity phase scale throughout June and July.
The hurricane season, which began on June 1 st, runs through the end of November. According to predictions by the University of Colorado, this year’s hurricane season is expected to be an active one, with 16 named storms, including 9 hurricanes. Predictions by Columbia University put the likelihood of above-average rainfall over the next three months at 40 percent and of average rainfall at 35 percent.