Video | Triple disaster imminent for Haiti as hurricane Tomas hits

The hurricane has already begun dumping up to 10 inches of rain on the island.

"It's not like we had the earthquake, then cholera, and now a hurricane," he told media in an interview Thursday at his private residence in Pétionville.

"We still have the consequences of the earthquake, we are facing the cholera ... and now we’re preparing for the hurricane coming, so it’s just piling on us, just making bigger and bigger problems."

Hurricane Tomas skirted Haiti Friday but unleashed 12 hours of rainfall on the island. The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami forecasts hurricane conditions to continue into tonight.

October’s a cholera countryside as so far claimed more than 440 lives and infected thousands more people. So far, the outbreak has been prevented from spreading to Port-au-Prince, devastated in January by an earthquake that killed 300,000 people.

But the earthquake, Mr. Bellerive says, has served the Haitian government in good stead as it has learned much from 10 months of relief efforts and was able to prepare for the worst in anticipation of Tomas.

"We have more experience, we have better coordination with NGOs and the humanitarian community, and also we have from day one – and even from day minus one, three or four – the government forewarning," says Bellerive. "Nobody could anticipate the earthquake, or the date of the cholera epidemic. But the hurricane we had days to prepare."

Aid groups and the Haitian government were this week stockpiling tents, water purification equipment, and other emergency supplies around the country. US Southern Command ordered the USS Iwo Jima to Haiti to provide post-storm support.