By Dennis Sadowski
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — Haitian first responders and nongovernmental aid workers were assessing
the damage from Hurricane Matthew even as they scrambled to deliver food, water
and shelter materials to communities isolated by washed-out bridges and blocked
roads.
The
storm left southwestern Haiti in shambles after slamming into the country’s Caribbean
coast Oct. 4. The cities of Les Cayes, on the southwest coast, and Jeremie, in the
northwest, were said to be particularly hit hard by the strongest storm to
strike the Caribbean region in a decade.
Water
stood shoulder-deep in some communities. Electrical service, the internet and
cell phone service disruptions were widespread. Makeshift wooden homes were
splintered, and even concrete block houses were wrecked by the storm.
A
bridge on the main road to the peninsula had been washed away, effectively
isolating people living in the region southwest of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
Eleven
deaths, including five in Haiti, were blamed on the storm in the region. The
number of casualties was expected to climb because Jeremie was said to have
sustained heavy damage, and little information had been received from the area,
said Mary Durran, Haiti program director for Development and Peace, the
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ aid and development agency.
“Nobody
knows right now what went on in Jeremie. They suspect it’s bad,” Durran
told Catholic News Service Oct. 5.
She
said numerous nurseries that were preparing to harvest vegetables were
destroyed by the storm and that Haitians were facing serious food shortages. Reports
from one co-op, known as Determined Women, indicated that its crops were wiped
out by winds and flooding, Durran said.
“It’s
very difficult to get information at the moment because communities are very
poor. Cellphone (towers) are down and, even when cellphone (towers) are working, there
is no electricity, and people can’t charge their cellphones,” she said.
Chris
Bessey, Haiti country director for Catholic Relief Services, told CNS that the
agency’s staff had begun to distribute food, water and hygiene kits from its
base in Les Cayes to people who lost their homes to the storm. He said assessments of the extent of damage continued the day after the storm.
Roads
remained blocked by floodwaters, downed trees and mudslides, he said, making
transportation in the city and outlying communities difficult.
The
storm also affected CRS operations when winds tore off part of the roof of the
agency’s offices and a warehouse in Les Cayes. After that, CRS staffers relocated to higher ground because of the threat of rising waters and were
attempting to deliver emergency supplies, Bessey said.
“And
we believe that part of the warehouse roof was also damaged. We’re hoping that
that isn’t the case, because that is where we have some of the nonfood
items,” Bessey said.
Caritas
Haiti responded with hot meals, water and hygiene products. An emergency team was
in place in Les Cayes before the storm hit and began distributing blankets,
bedding and toiletry kits as the winds and rain subsided.
“The
effect of the hurricane in the south of Haiti is catastrophic,” Father Jean-Herve
Francois, Caritas Haiti director, said in a statement from the agency.
“There have been deaths from drowning and collapsed buildings. Some
communities are under water. Many buildings are damaged. People have lost
everything.”
Among
the greatest fears were water-related diseases and malnutrition. Aid workers
reported that people lost stored food when their homes were destroyed. Farmers
were preparing to harvest crops as the storm hit, but lost fields of vegetables
and groves of mangos, bananas and avocados.
The
government and aid workers also were concerned about the increased risk of
cholera because of the heavy rains and the lack of access to clean drinking
water. After the cholera rate declined for months, the country witnessed an increase in
reported cholera cases in the first seven months of the year. With floodwaters
and overflowing rivers, the conditions are set for a widespread outbreak of the
water-borne disease in many corners of Haiti.
While
Matthew’s effects in Port-au-Prince were not as severe, flooding posed problems
for resident of Cite Soleil, the poorest community in the capital.
Kathrin
Jewert, program coordinator in Haiti for Malteser International, the aid organization
of the Order of Malta, said the agency has been working with residents flooded
out of their makeshift homes in the slum community. A barrier that protected
communities nearest Port-au-Prince Bay was breached by storm waters, flooding
some of the community’s narrow streets, she said.
Jewert
credited a disaster risk-reduction program involving the schools and parents
for helping families prepare for Matthew.
“They
had 48 hours to prepare the community,” she said. “They tried to make
a way that this community can try to protect itself.”
After
pounding Haiti, Matthew moved over easternmost Cuba, destroying dozens of homes in
Baracoa and damaging hundreds of others, the Associated Press reported.
Tweets from Baracoa seemed to indicate that fierce winds and a high storm surge
did most of the damage.
Forecasters
were watching the storm as it moved over the Bahamas and took aim on the
southeastern United States. States of emergency were declared for all of Florida
and coastal areas of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The storm was
expected to begin affecting the U.S. mainland as early as the night of Oct. 5.
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Editor’s
Note: For a list of agencies accepting donations for hurricane relief read the
CNS Blog at bit.ly/2cTLQeg.
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Follow
Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.
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