Hurricane/Tornado

Haiti is prone and very susceptible to persistent hurricanes due to its tropical and hot climate as it has had four official hurricanes just in the past seven years plus many other heavy rainfalls. Hurricane Gustav was one of the worst hurricanes that occurred within this time span on August 26th 2008 that caused approximately 77 deaths and eight disappearances. Gustav was a category four hurricane that formed in the early morning of August 25th, 420 kilometers from Port Au Prince, Haiti's capital, rapidly morphing into a tropical storm that afternoon and into a hurricane early the next day. The Haitian town Jacmel was first to be hit by the hurricane followed by many other Caribbean Islands as well as the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands and the United States causing about 6.6 billion dollars in damages. Gustav rampaged through Haiti, Jamaica, Western Cuba and steadily moved into the Gulf of Mexico which once reached became gradually weaker because of increased dry air and wind shear. On the early morning of August 26th when Gustav was enclosing on Haiti's southwestern peninsula, it's winds were topping 150 km/h making landfall on Haiti at 121 km/h. However as the Hurricane traveled across Haiti's mountainous terrain it began to lose a little power as its circulation was disrupted. Hurricane Gustav was the second most destructive hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season causing serious damage and casualties in many countries, with Haiti being the first in line. Before the hurricane had struck, Haitians had already been suffering from sky-rocketed food prices and extreme poverty, making the destruction from the storm only that much worse. Forty-five percent of the population being under the age of eighteen concluding in immense amounts of children left orphaned, poor and starving. Social and economical states were perishing prior to the hurricane only to be followed by physical declines as well from the deforestation and destruction left from Gustav. Schools and house's were left flooded and broken down affecting children's education as they could not go to classrooms that upcoming fall for the new school year leaving children's livelihoods and futures at stake.