The National Emergency Operations Center is actively monitoring the situation in Haiti and assessing the impacts, as "Isaias" turned hurricane continues to move beyond the northern coast of Haiti.

Thursday at 6 p.m., the first preliminary reports indicate damage to buildings in the departments, North-West, Artibonite, South-East and Center.

Provisional report :

Guinaudee, commune of Jean Rabel (Dept. North West) 22 houses damaged, Bocozelle commune of Saint-Marc (Artibonite), 9 houses damaged, Dumas, commune of Fort Liberté, 5 damaged houses, and in Juanaria, commune of Hinche (Center ) 1 damaged house

Crop damage caused by strong gusts of wind was also reported in the departments of Grande-Anse (Les Irois), Nippes (Font-des-Negres) and Sud (St Jean du Sud and Les Cayes).

Weather situation :

At 5:00 a.m., the center of Hurricane "Isaias" was located at 20.9 degrees North latitude and 73.3 degrees West longitude, 118km northwest of Port-de-Paix. Isaias is moving northwest at nearly 28 km/h. Some decrease in movement speed is expected followed by a turn to the North-North-West.

Isaias is forecast to be near the central Bahamas tonight and move near or over the Northwest Bahamas and near or east of the Florida Peninsula on Saturday and Sunday.

Maximum sustained winds are close to 130 km/h with higher gusts. Some strengthening is possible and Isaias is expected to remain a hurricane for the next few days.

Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 75 km from the center, and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 335 km.

HL/ HaitiLibre