How to help Haiti after Hurricane Matthew
OCTOBER 5, 2016 4:38 PM
After Hurricane Matthew made landfall in Haiti Tuesday, organizations are collecting supplies and financial donations.
Agencies collecting donations and supplies include:
▪ Catholic Relief Services is collecting blankets, kitchen, hygiene kits, other supplies and financial donations on its website.
▪ Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities established a relief fund for people in the Caribbean affected by the hurricane. Financial donations will be designated to provide transportation, gas, food and rebuilding or repairs. Those contributions can be made at the Catholic Charities website. On the donate tab, select the box “Disaster Relief — Hurricane Matthew.”
▪ United Way and Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald have already activated Operation Helping Hands to raise money for people affected by the storm and are building a disaster volunteer database. All of the money raised through Operation Helping Hands will go directly to help people affected by Hurricane Matthew.
▪ Food Aid International is sending meals to Haiti. Donations can be made at its website.
▪ Guidelines for giving can be found at the Center for International Disaster Informationwebsite.
President Barack Obama met with FEMA Wednesday about Hurricane Matthew and encouraged people to help those in Haiti “who didn’t have a lot to begin with and are now getting hammered by this storm.”
The Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, or CARE, director in Haiti, Jean-Michel Vigreux, said the southern part of Haiti was hit hard and is cut off from the rest of the country.
“The impacts of Matthew there are hard to evaluate as communication is very difficult, but we know of floods, landslides and continuous heavy rains in some areas of the south,” he said. “We also heard of destroyed houses, streets and bridges, dead livestock, destroyed livelihoods.”
The government estimates damages at about $1 billion.
Trees were uprooted and electric lines were cut off due to strong winds in the capital of Port-au-Prince. CARE distributed blankets and buckets at 11 a.m. before the storm hit Tuesday, the director said.
Haiti is still recovering from long-term effects of the earthquake in 2008, the cholera outbreak two years later, two cyclones, a tropical storm and two droughts, Vigreux said.
“The population is very strained,” he said. “Strengthening people’s resilience and boosting the reconstruction are key.”
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Matthew worse than Azel
Oct.2016
It is far worse than Hazel (1954) although there was a major effort to alert people and the death toll was not, as far as we know, in the thousands. The Civil defense force played a role and the govt stepped up to the plate as did radios.. But it is not enough. We are not really prepared like other island for such gigantic disasters. And the disaster has not ended, it has just begun. The aftershock is coming. Impressive was our friend Francois Anick Joseph, former priest and now Interior Minister who told tv and radio how it was or is. The town of poets, Jeremie is a complete wreck and even the solid old St Louis Roi de France church on Dumas place lost its roof. There is so much wreckage it is hard to visualize anyone has an undamaged home. Pilot Jeff Barnes flew into the airport in Jeremie the day after and could not enter the city because of fallen trees that blocked the road. It is the same for Cayes and town and villages on the peninsula. Mattthew rooted up the once beautiful Port Salut and more places.
Theo Wiener, who has worked with little farmers above Dame Marie went with Bernard Chauvet in his boat to see what has to be done. The uprooting of coffee and cacao trees is a disaster. Theo has invested his young life in helping the farmers and recently investing in making chocolate there. At Beaumond , coffee from the time of the French (Jesuits) suffered casualties, even trees that remain may take years to return to bear fruit. The peanut crop and small gardens may no longer help families to survive. The foreign reports don’t tell the origin of cholera that was brought to Haiti by Nepalese UN troops
Lauidear, driver and housekeeper went to Cayes to help fix his house that lost its roof. His mother’s house was totaled All we could do is give him some financial help which so many millions need now. Unable to help physically as in 1954 makes one feel so inadequate!
To witness thousands of family members returning to their wrecked original homes, especially in the south, will mean they and thousands of others will return with them and seek haven in Port-au-Prince.
One Haitian TV showed ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his candidate for president using the crisis yesterday for a campaign tour of the South in Aquin. He was born in the Port Salut area.
Election, that were set for Sunday have been postponed, yet again. Whoever becomes President will face an enormous rebuilding task.
Bernard
The international community announces humanitarian aid to Haiti
We are still in a provisional state. It is still too early to give firm figures.
In the morning of Wednesday, October 5th, 2016, the Interior Minister of Venezuela, Nestor Luis Reverol, announced the shipping of a cargo of 20 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Haiti.
This cargo contains non-perishable foodstuffs, water, blankets, sheets and medicine to help the population of Haiti, in particular local residents of Les Cayes, he said.
For his part, the Ambassador of Cuba said that a Cuban plane landed at the Toussaint Louverture Airport of Port-au-Prince last Saturday. On board were 300 doctors, nurses and other members of the Cuban medical staff. Their mission: to go and lend a hand to the members of the Cuban medical staff already on site for years assisting victims of Hurricane Matthew.
The USAID said that a million US dollars will be given in humanitarian aid as support to departments affected by Hurricane Matthew. This amount will be used to distribute vouchers and daily food rations, transfer funds, and meals in the evacuation shelters.
The USAID also supplied five hundred thousand dollars to international partners in Haiti to bring in logistic support and distribute supplies, including drinking water, cases of hygiene products, equipment for emergency shelters, blankets and household appliances.
The European Union (EU), through its head office for humanitarian aid and disaster and emergency services (Echo), immediately assigned two hundred fifty-five thousand euro to assist the victims most seriously affected, indicated a press release.
For his part, U.S. President Barack Obama launched a call for solidarity for Haiti, during a meeting with the press at the White House, according to the newspaper “The Short Story Writer”.
In response to this emergency situation, the General Secretary of Francophony, Madam Michaëlle Jean, encouraged states and member governments of the Francophony to mobilize, in solidarity, for the affected Haitian populations, in cities and in the countryside.
Several social organizations expressed their concerns in the face of these promised international humanitarian aid pledges, following the devastation of Hurricane Matthew.
“These financial pledges are going to create wealth for some in Haiti, as well in the international community, to the detriment of the hurricane victims,” warned Guy Numa, who heads the Popular Democratic Movement (Modep).
"The humanitarian aid must come within the strategic framework controlled and defined by Haitians," and must have a long-term outlook, recommended Camille Chalmers, who heads the Platform for an Alternate Development (PAPDA).
A response plan is being developed by the government, which will coordinate the international assistance, explained Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles during a press conference.
The international response to the request for help by the Haitian Government
The following is an ON THE GROUND HAITI UPDATE, which is an initiative by Michael Capponi
October 7, 2016 aid delivery and surveys of Haitian villages within a 40 km vicinity of Jérémie, including downtown Jeremie
1 . Today we were able to get approximately 30 to 40 km outside Jeremie. We were fortunate to have a God-sent Caterpillar to help us get through.
2 . We wanted to go from Jeremie to Les Anglais, where there is even more catastrophic destruction, but that was absolutely impossible. The next attempt was getting to Dame-Marie. That is also absolutely impossible. The roads are knee to waist high deep muddy swamps at every corner.
There are large fallen trees every 20 ft. With the help of a large Caterpillar and a crew of 6, they cleared approximately a few miles of road all day. At that rate, we anticipate it may take weeks before the roads are minimally operational again.
3. There is not 1 out of 3 homes destroyed but 3 out of 3 homes destroyed.
4. Our biggest fear is how long could injured starving children survive without aid in remote areas. It has now been 5 days and we are still days away from even getting to these areas.
5. Jeremi‘s cell phone towers have collapsed so there was no ability to communicate. But at 9 pm DIGICEL manage to do the repair. Thank you@maartenboute.
6. The biggest hope for these areas is the UN, US Navy helicopters and other countries’ peace keepers. We were very happy to see a series of military helicopters fly around Jeremie that have supplies, food and water. We brought a plane full from PAP but we also bought more in Jeremie.
7. Monetary donations to the proper trusted and proven Haiti expert specific NG0’s is going to be the quickest way of supporting immediately. (Be sure to see their financials to verify that no money is wasted on overhead and unnecessary expenses. People got burned once, never again)
8 . I can honestly say it looks just as bad as the 2010 earthquake in some areas. What’s much much worse, is the entire landscape, trees and agriculture fields are completely desolated. All the newly planted trees are mostly gone in the south west coast.
DEATH TOLL TO DATE IS CLOSE TO 900.
This is a statement by the Departmental Representative: Anse d’Hainault 12 dead, D’Espagne 15 dead, Abricots 5 dead, Baumont 82 dead, Mouline 58 missing, Moron 85 dead. Jérémie 31 dead…
Chambellan, Dame Marie, Beaumont, Pestel, Roseau are impossible areas to reach so far. Grand’Anse is an emergency zone.
This is a humanitarian disaster, an apocalyptic situation, all streets, from the large cities are affected. Jeremie is in huge trouble, all the trees are uprooted and torn down, all roofs have been torn.
Grand Anse had to face more than 12 hours of Hurricane Matthews at a level of 4-5.
This is a call for international solidarity. All the debris would have to be cleared- impossible to pass! There is an urgent need for food, water, medication
To see pictures of the catastrophe, click: www.globalempowermentmision.org
An initiative of the Perez Museum in Miami
Artist are encouraging visitors to write inspirational messages on postcards to be included in care packages which will be sent to Haiti.
The elections have been postponed to a later date which will be communicated before October 12th
Temporary electoral council (CEP) president, Léopold Berlanger Junior, announced the official postponement of the elections that were planned for this Sunday, October 9th, 2016.
The electoral council should be able to announce, on Wednesday, October 12th, the new date for the elections.
The president of the CEP indicated that meanwhile, the process of evaluation of the post-hurricane situation will continue this week and the CEP will keep in touch with the government and its national and foreign partners, he said.
As for the electoral campaign, the end of which was planned for this Friday, October 7th, this date is maintained until further notice, said Léopold Berlanger.
Toll Rises by Hour in Haiti Amid Ruin Left by Hurricane Matthew
LES CAYES, Haiti — A hospital now a shambles, its floors swamped with garbage and water, absent electricity. People living in the streets, camped in front of their broken homes. Buildings smashed into splinters. Farm fields flattened, portending a hard year ahead.
“For me, Roche-à-Bateau is not a place to live anymore,” said Warens Jeanty, 26, a tourism operator surveying the beach towns and picturesque port hamlets that dot Haiti’s coast. “People have nowhere to stay.”
As Haiti picks through the detritus left by Hurricane Matthew, more bodies are turning up every hour. Some estimates said that more than 800 people had died in the storm, more than double what the government has reported, though it acknowledged that the toll was unknown. In one part of the country’s southern peninsula, nearly 30,000 homes were destroyed and 150 lives lost, officials said.
And a full accounting of damage has not even started.
“I had never seen anything like this,” said Marie Yolene Gateau, a retired New York City guidance counselor who lives in Leogane, Haiti, a town that was largely flattened in the 2010 earthquake. Now the storm has wiped out most of the region’s sugar crop, bananas and mangoes, she said. “The hurricane was attacking the trees. I watched thinking, ‘When is it going to stop?’ ”
Passage to many areas remained blocked, thwarting efforts to assess the destruction and to help survivors. A single remote village reported 82 dead on Friday, while others said they were waiting to account for dozens of missing people. The government, which requires visual proof to count a death in its toll, could hardly keep up with the accounts of loss stitched together from hospitals.
“We’re still far from having a full picture of the extent of the damage,” said Marc Vincent, a Unicef representative in Haiti. “We are hoping for the best, but bracing for the worst.”
Photo
It is a state that Haiti has grown accustomed to.
The country was getting ready for elections this Sunday, the product of nearly a year of wrangling and recriminations. But after a long period of political uncertainty and delay, even nature would not let Haiti hold the vote.
Now the hurricane has presented yet another hurdle to a nation still grappling with the devastation of the 2010 earthquake and a cholera epidemic inadvertently introduced to the country by United Nations peacekeepers.
Etienne Navuson, 27, waited out the hurricane this week in his concrete home as the wind lashed his village on the southwestern peninsula. When he awoke, almost everything had vanished: cattle, crops, fields and homes.
“Had the rain fallen more than it did — had it gone for just one more hour — we would have lost even more,” Mr. Navuson said.
At least 90 percent of the village was destroyed, he said. Residents are searching for food and water buried in the rubble.
“Those who find something are fortunate,” he said. Seven more family members have taken refuge in Mr. Navuson’s home after losing their own to the storm. The tiny home is now packed with people sleeping on plastic sheets for bedding.
“There will be food shortages in the days to come,” Mr. Navuson said.
Msgr. Pierre-André Pierre, the head of the Catholic University of Notre Dame of Haiti, encountered chaos when he reached the coastal town of Jérémie. Trees were gone, leaving an empty field. Someone had discarded a body in front of a Catholic bishop’s house, not knowing where else to dispose of it.
“They were in a state of shock on what had happened in that place,” Monsignor Pierre said. “People were running in the streets.”
The monsignor said he then took a flight to the southern part of the peninsula where he passed over the town of Roche-à-Bateau, where little was left.
“That town did not exist,” he said.
Jeff Barnes, a Haitian-American pilot, was making relief flights on Friday. Many of the towns around Jérémie remained cut off from the rest of Haiti. In some neighborhoods, 80 to 90 percent of homes had been severely damaged or destroyed.
Swaths of trees had been reduced to stumps, he said. Large teams of young people had taken to the streets with machetes and chain saws, trying to clear roads blocked by fallen trees, some several feet in diameter.
“Almost everyone is living under the sky now, sleeping under the stars,” he said. “Doors are gone, people don’t have a place to live.”
Observers said that the hurricane and the lack of a coordinated response recalled the troubles the country faced during the 2010 earthquake.
“It is during natural disasters such as this the frailty and near-absence of Haiti’s state becomes most visible,” said Michael Deibert, the author of two books on Haiti. “As the country slides downhill, the political elites squabble in the capital and the international community fails to come up with an effective way of engaging with Haiti’s most vulnerable.”
Others agreed.
“Haiti has been in the path of the storm just way too often,” said Robert E. Maguire, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University. “It isn’t because of anything the Haitian people are doing. It’s natural disasters exacerbated because of the way people have managed the country.”
Policies that ordered or permitted the stripping of trees have left barren and scorched landscapes susceptible to mudslides. Poor development has left the country defenseless to hurricanes, without sea walls or other hard defenses to soften the blow.
The nation’s politics, meanwhile, often brew their own type of disaster, leaving the country bereft of clearly elected leaders.
The interim government is still assessing the damage. Haiti’s Civil Protection Force maintained on Friday that fewer than 300 people had died, but Reuters had tallied that nearly 900 lives were lost.
In many areas, schools, police stations and other buildings that would typically serve as voting stations are in tatters. The hope of most is that the government will reschedule the elections for this year.
“We will have another disaster here if these elections aren’t held this year,” said Pierre Esperance, the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network. “The interim government doesn’t really have the power or legitimacy to control the country.”
For many, looking for food or still searching for loved ones, the elections were the last thing on their minds. On Friday, the Charmant Hotel in Jérémie had left a message on its website, saying its owners had not been in touch since the storm.
“We do know that Bette and Edwin were taking precautions for their guests, staff and family prior to the hurricane,” said the message, left by staff members.
Valery Numa, a well-known radio host in Port-au-Prince, ran three businesses — a hotel, a radio station and a Haitian Creole restaurant — in the town of Camp Perrin. All three were destroyed in the hurricane. But Mr. Numba has put an ambitious date, Nov. 1, for opening his three operations again.
“Any businessman who loses everything is going to be in distress,” he said, adding that he found himself lucky that none of his family members had died.
The aftermath of the storm also brought scenes of hope as survivors appeared. As the hurricane subsided, a team from St.-Boniface Hospital in southwestern Haiti went out to clear a route through debris. Looking up through the lessening rain, one of the workers saw the figure of a pregnant woman.
Her name was Julienne Cadet. She had been walking for at least half a mile. She was bleeding, in active labor.
The team quickly gathered around Ms. Cadet, helped her across a raging stream and drove her to the hospital. After an emergency cesarean section, she delivered two healthy boys: Jonas and Jean-atan
Father Sansaricq to President Obama
October 4th, 2016
Mr. Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington DC
Mr. President:
The recent Deportation Policy adopted by the Justice Department with regard to undocumented Haitian entrants resonates as a statement of utter contempt to a population in distress.
In your various statements throughout your tenure you have always made it clear that people in distress are not to be treated as cattle or merchandise. With all due respect, forgive me to lament that the new policy contradicts your stated principles.
Indeed, Haitian Politicians are far from being blameless but we must also admit that misguided
Interference of the US Governments over the past fifty years have significantly worsened the political
and social conditions of that country. The US management of relief funds after the 2010 earthquake, the imposition of Mr. Martelly as President five years ago and the entire cholera file can be pointed out as some of the many examples of contributing factors to the current crisis.
Let us honestly acknowledge it, Haitians who are running away by throve from their homeland are escaping dire conditions. I understand that it creates a political problem to the US. But we are dealing with human beings and human lives.
President Boyer of Haiti in 1826 invited any of the US born African slaves who were being forced back to Africa to take up residence in Haiti. Quite a few accepted the offer. Haitian soldiers fought in Savannah Georgia for the independence of the US. Haiti in spite of its present condition of poverty stands as a symbol of something great and hence deserves special regards from its more prosperous neighbor.
I plead that the stated deportation policy recently adopted be revoked for humanitarian reasons.
It is my hope that your legacy with regards to human rights will not be soiled by a last minute policy
that is likely to generate grave injustices, tremendous human sufferings, family separation and even
unknown numbers of avoidable tragedies.
Respectfully yours.
+Guy Sansaricq
Auxiliary-Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn NY
Director of the National Center of the Haitian Apostolate.