"Wap Kon'n Georges! "
Popular Haitian saying that was born, following hurricane Georges that devastated the south part of Haiti in 1998.
Hurricane Georges was the seventh tropical storm, fourth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season.
The tropical cyclone made seven landfalls on its long track through the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico during September, becoming the second most destructive storm of the season.
Georges killed 604 people, mainly on the island of Hispaniola, and caused nearly $6 billion (1998 US dollars, $7 billion 2006 USD) in damages, mostly in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
The hurricane affected at least six different countries (Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the United States) and Puerto Rico, a Commonwealth of the United States — more than any other hurricane since Hurricane Inez of the 1966 season, and more than any other hurricane until Hurricane Wilma in the 2005 season affected ten different countries.
Upon reaching Haiti, Georges was a weakened hurricane, but it still brought heavy rainfall across the entire country.
The capital city of Port au Prince was largely unharmed, with the exception of flooding in low-lying coastal areas, damaging the main commercial port. The rest of the country, however, experienced a significant number of mudslides due to deforestation along the mountains.
These mudslides destroyed or severely damaged many houses, leaving 167, 332 homeless.
Damage was greatest along the northern coastline from Cap-Haitien to Gonaives due to the flooding and mudslides.
On the southern coast, the head of a U.S.-based medical team, stranded for several days by flooding in the remote town of Belle Anse, anticipated a rise in malnutrition, disease, homelessness and poverty.
Lack of electricity led to a total disruption of Haiti's water supply system, causing a decrease in sanitary conditions across the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
In all, 209 people died in Haiti.
Like in the Dominican Republic, the agricultural sector suffered extreme damage.
After a severe drought in 1997, Georges's severe flooding stopped any chances of recovering quickly.
Most of the country's significant crop land, including Artibonite Valley, suffered total losses.
Up to 80% of banana plantations were lost, while vegetable, roots, tubers, and other food crops were ruined.
In addition, thousands of small farm animals were either killed or lost. Total agricultural losses amounted to $179 million (1998 USD, $210 million 2006 USD).
The country requested food assistance in the aftermath of the hurricane to alleviate the serious losses
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