Homes lay in ruins after the passing of Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Hurricane Matthew left a trail of devastation behind as it forced its way through Haiti on October 4. Most affected areas are left with houses in rubble, smashed concrete walls and torn off roofs, most likely to result in a high number of fatalities. More worryingly, the La Digue Bridge linking the southern peninsula of Haiti to Port-au-Prince collapsed: the affected southern areas have therefore become extremely hard to reach, most roads have become impassable, and most communication means have been knocked out.

In face of this critical situation, REACH is being deployed to assist partners and local actors with gaining understanding of the emergency and needs at stake. REACH will initially be deployed within the framework of our partnership with the global WASH Cluster, and our assessment and information management specialists will be arriving in Haiti in the coming days to support assessments. We will be posting any update that we have on this rapid deployment and will publish outputs to inform the humanitarian situation and needs when more information becomes available.