Sandy flooding triggers cholera in Haiti Flooding in Haiti caused by Hurricane Sandy has triggered a surge in cholera, with three deaths and almost 300 suspected cases, adding to a death toll from the storm of 54. Although Jamaica and Cuba also sustained direct hits from Sandy, the bulk of the 71 deaths registered so far in the Caribbean were in impoverished Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere where many still live in flimsy shacks since the 2010 earthquake. IN Latin America & Caribbean With a lack of adequate food a problem long before the storm, shortages are now expected to worsen after more than 20 inches of rain in 24 hours destroyed more than 70 per cent of the crops in southern Haiti, including plantains, bananas and maize. A month-long state of emergency has been declared, with an appeal to international solidarity launched by Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, who described the situation as "frightening." Venezuela has already sent three aircraft and a boat loaded with 240 tonnes of food, with France and Mexico also offering help. "Several thousand kilometres of agricultural roads were destroyed and thousands of heads of cattle were swept away by the flood waters, which also destroyed thousands of hectares of plantations," said Jacques Thomas, agriculture minister. The hurricane will complicate President Michel Martelly's struggle to pick up the pieces after a devastating earthquake in January 2010, which was followed by the Caribbean country's first cholera outbreak in more than a century later that year that killed 7,500 people. After a food crisis in 2008 brought down the previous prime minister, there are fears that unrest could worsen. Only last month there were protests against Mr Martelly over the high cost of living, corruption and his failure to deliver on promises to alleviate poverty since he was elected with 68 per cent of the vote in a run-off in May 2011. With Haiti even more dependent on imports after the storm, food costs are now likely to rise further after the price of rice, corn, beans and wheat in Haiti increased by almost half over the past year because of rising import prices and storm-related agricultural losses. Structural deficiencies in the economy, including low investment in agriculture, mean that Haiti imports well over half of its food. "The situation is particularly serious; in Haiti there are major needs in terms of food due to crops destroyed, first by Hurricane Isaac and now Sandy," said Gregoire Goodstein, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration in Haiti. He added that there has been "considerable damage" to houses, creating more displacement and compounding the housing problem that had existed since the earthquake of January 2010. Although the UN" Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean projects 6 per cent economic growth for Haiti this year, experts say this will not necessarily improve the lives of the 78 per cent of Haitians who survive on less than $2 a day. The economy has rebounded strongly since the earthquake, with the government betting on big initiatives such as the $300m Caracol industrial park in northern Haiti opened last month by Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and Bill Clinton, former US president and now the UN's special envoy to Haiti. It is also backed by Sae-A, the giant Korean garment manufacturer, and is expected to provide tens of thousands of jobs. The surge in cholera - already by far the largest outbreak in the world in recent years with more cases than on the whole of the African continent - comes shortly after new evidence emerged suggesting that it is "most likely" that the epidemic was caused by UN soldiers from Nepal, as well as the renewal last month of the UN's peacekeeping mission in Haiti for an eighth year.