Hurricane Gustav tore ashore at Jacmel on the southern peninsula of Haiti on August 26th. More than 12 inches of rain fell in a few hours on Haiti's denuded hillsides. More than 75 Haitians lost their lives and over 8000 their homes in mudslides and flash floods in the hours afterwards. The sad truth is that Haiti was still recovering from tropical storm Fay which soaked the island earlier in the month, killing 23.

Just today Hurricane Hanna glanced off the northern coast, bringing concentrated rain to the same region around Gonaive where three thousand died in the flooding of tropical storm Jeanne in September 2004. Preliminary indications are that severe flooding is beginning to take place again and we are waiting for the first reports from our nursery in Gros Morne.

Food prices are likely to continue to spike in the light of devastation of crops caused by these events. The U.N. stated this week that Gustav had wrought "very significant" damages to Haitian agricultural land. Haiti's government faced demonstrations earlier this year to abandon its agricultural program and import grain, a dynamic that will undercut government efforts to support farmers.

In light of the tragedy caused by both the short term and long term effects of these storms, reforestation work has never been more important.