I was worried this would be a catastrophe but fortunately it seems we avoided one. The government was much better prepared for this storm [than before]. They prepositioned materials, forcably evacuated people and had meetings on Thursday in preparation.

We got some rain here in [the capital] Port-au-Prince but not much more than a typical rainstorm. We’re waiting for more information from our partners up north, where there’s been some minimal flooding, and just need clearance to fly so we can get supplies to the public hospitals that are asking for them. We essentially have a flying intensive care unit on the helicopter: we take a ventilator, meds, oxygen, basically everything you need for critical care. The helicopter isn’t that big, so we take the supplies to hospitals, then we fly out someone who is sick and needs transport. During Hurricane Matthew last year we’d have three or four people who needed to be transported, but we would have to just choose one person – the sickest, the person most in need.

Haiti’s Department of Civil Protection estimates that 8,000 people are currently in shelters – schools and churches. There were more but many people were able to return home. What we’re expecting to see is people with acute injuries that get worse as time goes by: deep lacerations from wood or metal causing infection or tetanus. If a hospital is flooded, or doctors can’t get into the hospitals, then infections are more likely to go untreated. The Artibonite river, which goes through the heart of Haiti and has been the primary source of cholera outbreaks [since the 2010 earthquake], has flooded and we’re going to have to see how bad things get with that over the next few days.

Obviously this hurricane is just going to make bad things worse. The Haitian government doesn’t fund healthcare, it’s 6% of the budget when it could be 15% or 20%, and when you don’t fund healthcare you don’t have medication, staff aren’t paid on time, and then they go on strike because conditions and pay are so poor. International partners can help with short-term solutions and rebuilding. But in the long term the Haitian government needs to increase funding for the public healthcare system.”