Years of past tropical storm damage have already affected the country of Haiti,making the 7.0-magnitude earthquake even more devastating for the vulnerableregion.
Four hurricanes hit Haiti in a span of three weeks during the latter part ofsummer 2008.
In August 2008, Tropical Storm Fay made landfall on Hispaniola with damagingwinds and heavy rainfall severely impacting the rice and banana crop. Fiftydeaths due to flooding were blamed on the storm.
Later in August 2008, Category 2 Hurricane Gustav made landfall near theHaitian town of Jacmel, which is in close proximity to Port-au-Prince.
Landslides destroyed homes across the region, killing 77 people as a result ofthe hurricane.
Days later, on Aug. 28, 2008, Hurricane Hanna's wrath caused even more floodingand mudslides in northern Haiti and over 500 deaths were reported. Haiti wasalready severely rain-saturated by Fay and Gustav.
The fourth storm, and most intense of 2008 for the Atlantic Basin, passed overthe outskirts of Haiti as Category 4 Hurricane Ike. The outer bands of thestorm caused additional flooding for the area, although it was significantlyless severe than the previous three storms.
Ike killed 74 Haitians.
Another direct hit, this time in the form of a major earthquake, isoverwhelmingly disastrous for the already battered country.
"Tropical waves after earthquakes should remain a concern. Flooding andrainfall are big problems for the region," said AccuWeather.com ExpertMeteorologist and Long-Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 54 percentof Haitians currently live in poverty.
Story by AccuWeather.com's Carly Porter.
