PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti  — Haitians have suffered widespread hunger following an unusually active storm season this year and are likely to experience more, according to a study released Friday.

The report, backed by a Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-based think tank, found that rural households in the heavily hit areas of Haiti’s west, north and Grand-Anse departments experienced what it termed “severe food shortages” after Hurricane Sandy and an unnamed storm that followed. The two merely brushed the Caribbean nation in October and November but caused major flooding and killed as many as 66 people.

Nearly 70 percent of the more than 1,000 households interviewed said they experienced moderate or severe hunger, according to the study, “After the Storm: Haiti’s Coming Food Crisis.”

Pictured: A man returns empty-handed after early morning crabbing in a body of water near the Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.