As a weakening Tomas pushed northward Saturday, officials in Haiti are assessing damage from the storm along the hardest-hit western edge of the island.
The storm is blamed for the deaths of at least 6 people in Haiti, but there is nevertheless widespread relief the nation was spared the worst.
"It really didn't dump a lot of rain on us, so we got very lucky," said Steve McAndrew, Haiti earthquake relief coordinator for the American Red Cross.
On Friday, Tomas hammered the Haitian coastal town of Leogane, which was hard-hit by the earthquake of Jan. 12. The quake destroyed about 90 per cent of the town's buildings and killed thousands of residents.
Tomas blasted ashore as a category 1 hurricane with 135 km/h winds. The storm dumped several inches of rain on southwestern Haiti throughout Friday and overnight into Saturday.
"But the good news is, there is a silver lining here, that most of these tent cities, while muddy, while sloppy and generally pretty miserable unfortunately, most of the people did survive. The tents are intact and it seems like the worst is really over," ABC reporter Matt Gutman told CTV News Channel Saturday in a telephone interview from the capital of Port-au-Prince.
While the displacement camps in Port-au-Prince were largely spared the worst of Tomas, rivers of water carrying garbage flowed through the capital.
Officials had warned residents to leave the camps ahead of the storm, but many either chose or were forced to stay because they had nowhere else to go.
Health officials feared widespread flooding could cause a second wave in the country's deadly cholera outbreak, which has killed more than 440 people and sent more than 6,700 others to hospital.
But Gutman said while a resurgence in the outbreak "is a significant concern," it doesn't yet appear to be a serious threat.
"(Cholera) hasn't really spread to the capital yet," Gutman said. "They're concerned that it might. If it does it could be a horrible contagion. But so far so good."
Tomas killed at least 14 people when it slammed the eastern Caribbean country of St. Lucia as a hurricane last Saturday. The government has already pegged the cost of repairing the damages at approximately $500 million.
Tomas weakened into a tropical storm early Saturday but regained its hurricane strength in the afternoon with winds of 120 km/h, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The hurricane was located about 400 kilometres north-northeast of Grand Turk Island and was expected to continue moving to the northeast into open water.
All storm warnings have been discontinued.
With files from The Associated Press
