Haitians seek shelter as Tomas nears

Thousands of Haitians forced into temporary camps after January's devastating earthquake are seeking safe places to stay as tropical storm Tomas edges closer to the Caribbean nation.

The Haitian government has urged the people living in camps and tent cities after January's devastating earthquake to seek shelter with friends and families.

"We are using radio stations to announce to people that if they don't have a place to go, but they have friends and families, they should move into a place that is secure," said civil protection official Nadia Lochard, who oversees the department that includes the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said there is still a need to identify more safe public spaces for use as potential storm shelters.

"We are concerned that severe flooding will make a difficult situation in Haiti even more difficult," said Nigel Fisher, the United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator in Port-au-Prince.

"We frankly to do not have all the shelter requirements that we need for people post-Tomas, in terms of tents, in terms of tarpaulins," he said.

He said relief organizations are also concerned that flooding could increase the spread of cholera, which has killed more than 440 people since the outbreak began in the Artibonite region.

As news of Tomas's predicted pass slowly filtered through Port-au-Prince via wind-up radios and megaphone announcements, unease set in among people who already lost homes and loved ones in the quake and saw their tents ripped apart in lesser storms this year.

"People said, 'We've been displaced before. What's going to happen to us? Are we going to be able to get back?"' said Bryant Castro, an American Refugee Committee staffer who is managing the nearly 8,000 people at the Corail-Cesselesse relocation camp.

Tomas was upgraded again to tropical storm status Wednesday evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. By 8 p.m. ET Thursday, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 95 km/h, with some strengthening expected.

"Tomas could be near or at hurricane strength as the centre passes eastern Cuba and the southeastern Bahamas," forecasters said.

CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe said the storm is not expected to make direct landfall in Haiti, where a hurricane warning is in effect, but there is still a risk of "high winds, flash floods and mudslides."

Tomas is expected to dump 12 to 25 centimetres of rain on much of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The storm was located about 425 kilometres west-southwest of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and about 150 kilometres southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, forecasters said Thursday.

The hurricane centre in Miami said the centre of the storm will likely pass near Haiti or eastern Cuba late Thursday and early Friday.

Forecasters said a hurricane warning is also in effect for southeastern Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and the Cuban province of Guantanamo. A tropical storm warning was issued for Jamaica and the Cuban provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguin.

Tomas has already killed at least 14 people and left seven missing in the eastern Caribbean nation of St. Lucia, where it caused more than $37 million in damage.