PETIONVILLE, Haiti -- Wilbert Lucien frowns when he looks up at the rain clouds. A lot of people here do that these days.

''It could be very bad if we get a hurricane here," he said. "Very bad." Haitians have already seen the terrifying power of nature this year -- the Jan. 12 earthquake -- and …

… the start of the hurricane season has made them extremely vulnerable again.

Lucien stands in a refugee camp for quake survivors built in a steep ravine on the edge of a golf course in this town above the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Since the quake, at least 25,000 people have squatted here in makeshift shacks patched together from scraps of wood, plastic tarps and sheets of zinc roofing. Those flimsy structures barely cling to the sloping ground. Wind and rain are the last things they need.

Lucien, who said he would much rather be living with his cousin, Maxwell Lucien, in West Palm Beach, Fla., is a camp security guard. He fears it will be very difficult to protect the inhabitants if a big storm hits.

Mark Saintvil, who works in the camp for an aid organization sponsored by actor Sean Penn, agrees. His son, Lilmark, used to live in Boynton Beach, Fla., but has since moved to Georgia. His father is glad his son is not in the refugee camp.

''If a hurricane were to hit here today, I'm afraid some of these people would die," Saintvil said.

It certainly looks like a disaster waiting to happen. But international aid professionals in Haiti are not so pessimistic.

They say South Florida residents should not imagine winds like those of hurricanes Charley or Andrew, Categories 4 and 5, attacking the capital.

''This region is protected by high mountains and we are told that winds have never gone above 85 miles per hour around here," said Richard Poole of the American Refugee Committee.

That is still a Category 1 hurricane, and the structures in the camps seem extremely rickety for that much wind.

But U.N. staffers and other aid workers say they and the Haitian people are making preparations for a big blow. Since the quake, Haiti has been filled with experts on natural disasters, engineers, builders, and health professionals.

''Right now in Haiti the international community has tremendous capacity," said Giovanni Riccardi Candiani, head of contingency planning for the U.N. Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance. "We have a great ability to mitigate the effects of a hurricane." He said hundreds of refugee camps, ranging from 45,000 inhabitants to handfuls of people, have sprung up around the earthquake zone. They hold more than 1 million people, but the inhabitants considered in the most danger are those living in low-lying areas.

''It is not so much the wind that is the danger here, but the water, the flooding," Riccardi said. "If you go back to Gonaives in 2004, those people died from flooding, not wind." He is referring to the central Haitian city where 3,000 people were killed by tropical rains six years ago.

''Back then the biggest problem Haiti had when it came to storms was letting people know what was coming and having them prepared," he said. "Now with all the organizations here and the Haitian government, too, we have an excellent early warning system." Prepared to mobilize

Riccardi said a "situation room" has been established at U.N. headquarters near the Port-au-Prince airport, which will be staffed by U.N. personnel, other international organizations and Haitian government ministries.

''If we know that 10 inches of rain are coming in the next 24 hours we will be moving SUVs and trucks, helicopters, whatever, to those areas that are the most vulnerable, before the rain hits," he said.

He said evacuation plans are in place for some areas. But where will people be evacuated to in a region that saw tens of thousands of structures collapse on Jan. 12?

The answer to that question is a patchwork -- a bit like the huts where the people now live.

Hal Taylor, 64, of San Jose, Calif., a volunteer with the United Methodist Church, works at the refugee camp outside Tabarre, a neighborhood on the edge of Port-au-Prince. The camp holds about 2,500 people.

''The people there have a contingency plan to go into Tabarre and sit it out with people whose concrete homes are still standing, until it all passes," he said.

Poole, of the American Refugee Committee, is the director of a new camp 15 miles from downtown Port-au-Prince in a place called Corail. The camp holds 5,000 people in 1,300 spacious new "tunnel tents" that are supported by arched fiberglass rods. They are supposed to withstand winds of 75 mph.

But Poole said a contingency plan exists in the event of strong winds. Residents would remove the rods from the tents and create structures that stand just a couple of feet off the ground, tie down those structures, lie down and ride it out.

''The idea is to get close to the ground and let the wind go over you," he said. Riccardi said yet another contingency plan exists for another low-lying camp.

''The owner of the land where the camp is located also owns the land just above the camp," he said. "We have already arranged with him to move those people uphill if necessary."

Moving back to homes

Not all landowners have been as helpful. Acquiring the rights to use private lands for shelters has been a problem, once again pitting the haves against the have-nots in Haiti.

Aid experts are also trying to get more people to move back into their old concrete homes. Many of those structures have been studied by engineers and judged to be safe.

But many Haitians have been left so traumatized by the quake and the aftershocks they refuse to do that. The experts figure as the rains increase, more will make the move.

But tens of thousands of people have no home and no family members who can help. Cities outside Port-au-Prince, such as Jacmel and Leogane, were hit even worse by the quake and are also more exposed to strong hurricane winds.

Riccardi said plans are being developed for those people but are not finalized. One possibility is the building of large temporary structures where people can take shelter.

''A large steel warehouse with concrete slab floors is something we can build in five days," he said. "We have that ability. It is something that is possible."

Another plan in the works is to quickly rebuild large public buildings destroyed in the earthquake, especially schools, that also can be used as hurricane shelters.

''The schools have to be rebuilt anyway," Riccardi said. "I know it seems like there isn't much time. Hurricane season has already started. But it can be done. We have the capacity, the technology, and those kinds of resources. There is a long tradition in Haiti of taking refuge in schools and churches during storms."

Riccardi said decisions are close to being made. One person pressuring for more action is former President Bill Clinton, co-chair of the U.N.'s Haiti Reconstruction Committee. Decisions may be announced this week, Riccardi hinted.

Haitians living in the refugee camps wonder why the decisions haven't been made already.

Solange Bernard, 48, a widow who lives in the St. Pierre Plaza camp in Petionville with her children, said it rained hard last week and her tent leaked.

''Me and my children had to stand up on our beds and lift the roof of the tent to try to keep the rain from coming through the holes," she said. "Still it came in and we had to capture it in buckets.

''We know people are trying to help us," she said, "but what will happen when a hurricane comes? They haven't told us where we will go. I'm very worried."

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