Wednesday, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced an additional $1 million in humanitarian assistance for communities in Haiti affected by Hurricane Matthew. This brings total USAID humanitarian assistance for regional hurricane relief efforts to $1.5 million.

This additional amount will help provide food vouchers, food rations, cash transfers, and meals at evacuation shelters. It will also allow the agency's network of humanitarian partners in Haiti to scale up relief operations. USAID is also providing $500,000 to international partners in Haiti to provide logistics support and distribute critical relief supplies, including safe drinking water, hygiene kits, emergency shelter materials, blankets, and household goods.

This new funding comes a day after USAID activated a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in the central Caribbean. The DART, an elite team of disaster experts, has deployed to Haiti, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, where they are coordinating with governments of the affected countries and humanitarian organizations on the ground to bring vital humanitarian assistance and logistics support to communities in need.

In addition to deploying staff throughout the region, USAID has also pre-positioned relief supplies and is gearing up to airlift additional needed supplies from its warehouse in Miami (Florida), for assist victims of Matthew.

HL/ HaitiLibre