Central America & the Caribbean

"For nearly 10 months, more than 1 million people in Haiti's earthquake camps have been walking a precarious line: Trying to get out and find good homes without losing their tents and the possessions they still have. Now a potential hurricane threatens to upend that careful balance. The Haitian government has called for the voluntary evacuation of all the quake zone's camps ahead of Friday's expected arrival of Tropical Storm Tomas, telling residents to find somewhere else to go."

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- This battered country is bracing for the arrival of a storm later this week that could complicate its efforts to control a cholera outbreak, and expose hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors living in tent cities to high winds and heavy rains."

"SAINT MARC, Haiti -- Officials warn that Haiti's cholera epidemic that has claimed almost 300 lives has yet to peak, and that authorities should prepare for the disease to spread to the capital and its squalid tent cities."

"A cholera epidemic in Haiti has killed more than 250 people, the government said on Sunday, but it added the outbreak which has sickened more than 3,000 may be stabilizing with fewer deaths and new cases reported over the last 24 hours."

The creation of protected corriders that help jaguars roam is a key to the strategy for preserving them in Costa Rica.

"They ran for blocks when they saw the big truck with the Minnesota license plate roll by. Little girls and old women, little boys and young men, all chasing the shiny silver tanker down streets of Cite Soleil, one of the world’s worst slums. Past fly-infested garbage piles, by canals reeking of raw sewage, they carried buckets, pans, pots, tubs — anything that could hold what has become gold in the ruins of Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake: clean water."

Cholera may be the next disaster in Haiti as thousands in tent cities face the coming rainy season without sanitation.

"Long-term efforts to help Haiti recover from the earthquake will have to reverse environmental damage such as near-total deforestation that threatens food and water supplies for the Caribbean nation, experts say."

"The poor nation has long suffered from a lack of medical care and rampant disease. With the earthquake, aid agencies must build a healthcare system on the fly."