even the naval medical mission is fleeing Irene...

The ship only just got there Thursday, and it already had to leave today.  Last stop planned.  And now, only a few days in, fini.  Aaaaaaargh.  I'd like to think they were coming back, but the past tense used in the article about that port of call seems to indicate otherwise.  I'm just sad.  I bet they are too, unless they are just so anxious to be home after five months out that they are ready to go, period. 

Tropical Storm Irene Approaches Haiti - via BBC website Sunday evening

Looking for news updates, I noticed that once again the UK sites have more information on Haiti than the US websites do even though we're nearer at hand.  I don't know if it's just that we are more concerned with Puerto Rico and Florida, or if the UK is just more interested in Haiti than we are.   In any case, the BBC and Yahoo News UK both are covering it with decent mention of Haiti.  The article I just read on Yahoo, excerpted below, is called "Irene swirls toward Haiti, Dominican Republic"  (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/tropical-storm-harvey-become-hurricane-133316084.html ). 

For that matter, le Nouvelliste didn't even have anything front and center on their website; I had to go to Haiti News for that.  If you are interested, by the way, they gather news from around the web.
 Link:  http://www.haitinews.net/
Maybe I should be putting this on my links to the side...
Does anyone know if Le Nouvelliste has a weather page I just haven't found or if that's not part of their regular website?

Pertinent excerpt from the UK Yahoo article on the storm:

Tropical Storm Irene roared into the Caribbean Sunday with forecasters warning it could reach hurricane strength as it bore down on the Dominican Republic and quake-ravaged Haiti.

The US National Hurricane Center said the storm, the ninth of the Atlantic season, was centered some 25 miles (40 kilometers) east-southeast of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, with sustained winds of 50 miles per hour at 2100 GMT.

Irene was tracking a path toward the island of Hispaniola, which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

With the storm expected to strengthen, hurricane warnings were in effect for the Dominican Republic's entire coastline, and for the island of Puerto Rico.

"Some strengthening is forecast during the next day or so, and Irene could become a hurricane on Monday," the center said.

Forecasters said the storm could weaken as it moves over the Dominican Republic, and that the storm could later track toward the Bahamas and Florida coast. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Haiti.

Haiti dodged a weather disaster earlier this month when it was brushed by Tropical Storm Emily, but Irene revived fears in a country where some 300,000 people still live in makeshift camps after a catastrophic 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 225,000 people.

In the Haitian capital, the US embassy announced that the naval hospital ship USNS Comfort, which only arrived in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, would be forced to cease operations Sunday and seek safe haven due to the forecast.

Haiti was the ship's final port of call at the end of a five-month humanitarian aid mission in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Irene was expected to pass near or over Puerto Rico later Sunday and approach the Dominican Republic on Monday, the NHC said.

It was expected to dump as much as 10 inches of rain (25 centimeters) on Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and four to seven inches of rain on the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.