P-au-P, July 22th 2012 [AlterPresse] --- More than 162 families, living in 3 localities (Kicroix, Boucambour and Saint-Antoine) of Bourgas (second district section of Kenscoff/ Est), are to be evacuated by the authorities of the Bureau of civil protection, explains the coordinator of the Bureau of civil protection of the Ouest, Nadia Lochard, in an interview she gave to Alterpresse, this Wednesday, July 18th.
“Plans are being conceived to know where these people will be relocated within the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince as rapidly as possible”, explains Lochard.
Given the persistence of the rainy season, the national authorities of the civil protection (Dpc) are in a hurry to carry out the immediate evacuation of these families to avoid an ecological disaster in the three localities of Kenscoff, where a landslide took place on 6th June.
This landslide has affected ten families, however without causing any deaths.
In a report on June 12th 2012 about this accident, the experts of the mines and energy office (Bme) called an immediate evacuation of the families living in these localities to a safer place . The experts fear that the cracks that were witnessed above the head of the landslide might worsen within the next month. There are houses in this area that are in danger if this were to happen.
“It is important to implement a security cordon around the area (which is uneven and accessible only by foot) and to forbid any new construction in the localities of Kicroix and Saint-Antoine, until the movement is stabilized and better identified. The cracks observed have to be controlled and it would be relevant to do a geophysics test in the area to assess the depth of the surface area of rupture”, the geologist engineer of the Bme advocates.
From March to mid-May 2012, a gravitating movement stemmed from the accumulation of water which has generated by the severe precipitation, in the red lateritic ground “ not much thick, put on broken and crushed limestone”.
“These lateritic grounds are very sensitive to water and can be easily washed down by streaming water, which is likely to create some mudslides”, points out the 13 page document from the mines and energy office.
‘’Additionally, the area affected by this landslide is situated 25 km from the epicenter of the earthquake which took place on January 12th, 2010. It has been critically moved by this earthquake. Such tremors are likely to have reactivated those previous landslides [Editor’s note: in 1998 and 1979] which happened during the period of heavy showers”, according to the Bme.
On Monday July 16th in the afternoon, a tropical rain caused damages in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince. Authorities reported one fatalitiy.
The National center of meteorology (Cnm) is reporting the movements of an other tropical rain, which might reach Haiti by Thursday, July 19th 2012.
[cp kt apr 22/07/2012 12:20]