Canada allocates $300,000 to hurricane-hit Haiti

Global Affairs Canada says the federal government is allocating $300,000 to Hurricane Matthew disaster relief in Haiti.

In a tweet on Friday, the department said funds will go towards helping Haiti meet the health, water, sanitation and shelter needs of the 50,000 Haitians affected by the storm.

Hurricane Matthew’s 235 km/h winds ripped through the Caribbean nation on Tuesday, destroying entire communities and cutting off parts of the country from assistance. The Category 4 storm killed at least 283 people and displaced thousands. Local officials expect the death toll to rise in the coming days. Haiti’s government has estimated that at least 350,000 residents need some kind of assistance.

The Canadian government deployed the Canadian Disaster Assessment Team (CDAT) to Haiti on Thursday, to meet with officials and determine what the country needs in the immediate aftermath of the storm. The team’s assessment is expected to take several days.

“The CDAT will rapidly assess the situation, which is a critical step in ensuring that a Canadian response to the hurricane is coordinated, evidence-based and tailored to the needs on the ground,” a government press release said.

The team is made up of three experts from Global Affiars Canada and three officers from the Canadian Armed Forces.

The federal government also announced that up to $3 million has been set aside for humanitarian aid in Haiti and other countries in the region affected by the Hurricane.

“Canada stands side by side with Haiti in the wake of this devastating hurricane,” Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau said in the press release. “Our government is ready to provide further assistance needed to reach the most vulnerable, including, especially, women and children.”

The government identified at least eleven Haitian communities in need of direct attention around the Grand’Anse, Nippes and Sud areas. They also said they’re providing support for the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination unit teams in Jamaica and Haiti as well as working with the Red Cross Movement and NGOs.

Haiti has suffered from a number of natural disasters in the past six years including deadly flooding and the destructive earthquake in 2010, which the country is still recovering from.

With files from The Associated Press

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  Saintanor Dutervil stands with his wife in the ruins of their home destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. Two days after the storm rampaged across the country's remote southwestern peninsula, authorities and aid workers still lack a clear picture of what they fear is the country's biggest disaster in years. (Dieu Nalio Chery/AP)

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  Girls hold hands as they help each other wade through a flooded street after the passing of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. (Dieu Nalio Chery/AP)

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  Saint Anne church lays totally destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in Camp Perrin, a district of Les Cayes, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. (Dieu Nalio Chery/AP)