“... The Lord has his way, in the
whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. (Nahum
1:3)
Hi! Haiti is
a country that is susceptible to natural disasters. When I went on the internet
on Wednesday the first thing I noticed was a breaking news report of an
earthquake of 7.6 that hit Costa Rica and that there was a tsunami alert for
the Caribbean. I ran outside to tell the people in our yard about the alert and
then went back to the computer. The alert was updated and the Caribbean was not
at risk for a tsunami. I then went back outside and told everyone that it was a
false alarm! I felt sorry for the people
living in Costa Rica and figured there must have been a lot of damage, and loss
of life, only to find out later that there was just 1 death due to a heart
attack during the earthquake and that buildings were still standing in Costa
Rica. I hope and pray that construction in Haiti will improve to the same
levels as other developed areas of the world.
Last Sunday
morning at around 8:00am there was a 3.7 earthquake in Haiti, which was located
4 km south of Leogane and 33km WSW of Port-au-Prince. We never felt anything
here at Coram Deo.
A few weeks
ago 100 earthquake experts met in the Dominican Republic. Representatives from
Caribbean countries attended. What was stressed is that the islands of the
Caribbean are located in a seismic zone that is active and that an earthquake
of 8.0 may arrive at any moment along with a tsunami risk. A Haitian
seismologist stated that another earthquake for Haiti is imminent and could
happen at any time. There is a strong possibility/certainty that Cap Haitien
will one day suffer the same fate as Port-au-Prince did. Wednesday’s earthquake
in Costa Rica sure is a reminder to be aware!
We are in
the middle of hurricane season and Haiti was visited by Tropical Storm Isaac
almost 2 weeks ago. We monitor the National Hurricane Centre’s website daily to
monitor the progress of storms. There was a possibility that Isaac would form
into a Category 1 Hurricane before passing through Haiti. The storm slowed down as it neared Haiti. We
thought we would see effects in the afternoon but it wasn’t until late in the
evening that Isaac showed its’ effects.
The winds
started and soon my cell phone rang. Someone we know that lives in a refuge
camp called to say that the winds were causing problems and that the people
were scared and praying. Isaac never reached hurricane strength when it hit
Haiti and everyone is thankful for that, but even as a tropical storm a lot of
damage was caused by flooding and the winds. We never had flying projectiles of
coconuts going through the yard but the flying projectiles of almonds falling
off the tree and hitting the tin roof of the kitchen shelter sure made a lot of
noise! A window screen fell onto my bed and I decided that I didn’t want to lie
in bed anymore and checked out the house instead. The winds eventually died
down and then there was just the rain.
In the morning we checked out how Port-au-Prince
weathered the storm and in some places there were large tree branches that had
fallen. The government had work crews out removing debris from the storm. Some
tents in the refuge camps were destroyed. We saw the Grise River was full with
storm runoff and flooding its’ banks in some places. The bridge in
Croix-des-Missions was closed to vehicular traffic due to the flooding river. In
the Gressier region the Momanse River was enlarged by 50 meters by the flooding
waters.
The most
damage was done in the South-East and West (Port-au-Prince) departments of the
country. 165 camps were affected by Isaac. 18 refuge camps were evacuated by
civil protection officials. 15,812 families were evacuated from the camps, 24
people lost their lives either in landslides, drowning or electrocution, and 42
people were injured. Tents were ripped
by the winds as well as tin roofs being ripped off of homes. It wasn’t just the
refuge camps where the storms effects were felt. In one government report it
was stated that 1,144 homes were flooded, 1,005 homes destroyed and 6,040 homes
damaged. 8,189 families are now homeless after the storm.
Vanessa (a
hydrocephalus girl) and her family live in Fond Verette, a mountain region near
the Dominican border. Their home was destroyed by the winds of Isaac. When
Vanessa’s mother called me I could hear hammering in the background as the
family was putting together a shelter to live in. We had a large tarp that we gave to the
family. The road was blocked until a landslide and a large boulder was cleared
from the mountain road. Her sister picked up the tarp a couple of days later.
Pastor
Pierre’s church and some of the church member’s homes suffered some damage due
to the windy conditions. Some homes were lost to landslides and others by
having their roofs ripped off by the winds.
Floridalaine is a young girl who was born with
congenital cataracts. The last couple of weeks we have been bringing her for
tests and appointments to General Hospital in the hopes of getting cataract
surgery for her. Her family lives in the mountains of Kenscoff. Her father told
me that they lost their crop to the storm. He had planted beans and potatoes
and harvest time would have been in October. Now many families have lost their
crops in addition to their homes. Selling of their harvest creates an income
for paying for school for their children and for seed for the next planting
season. Many families in the Kenscoff area lost their crops and a few people
lost their lives in the landslides.
Agriculture
took a big hit during the storm. Before Isaac appeared agricultural production
was already affected by a 40% loss in crop yields due to the dry season. Banana
plantations, coffee, avocado, and rice crops were almost totally destroyed in
certain regions by Isaac. Fruit was affected as well. Thousands of animals were
carried away by flooding rivers. It is
estimated that agriculture suffered $242 million US$ in damage. The irrigation
system in the South-East and the Cul-de-Sac plain is severely damaged. Pray for
families who live in the farming areas. Hunger could become a problem in the
next few months due to the effects of losing their crops. Pray that those who
lost their homes will be able to rebuild or find other shelter for their
families, especially since hurricane season isn’t over until the end of
November.
Internet and
cell phone service was affected by the storm. The Digicel and Voila cell phone
companies had service interruptions that took some time to restore. Our
internet service was out of order for 4 days. We found out that Natcom, which
is the state/private Vietnamese telephone/cell/internet provider maintained
services after Isaacs’ passage. We purchased a jump stick to be able to pay a
daily rate for internet service. The government used the Natcom building as a
communications hub due to the damage to the other company sites. After the
storm the government sent out financial assistance to some families by
transferring mobile money to their cell phones that they could use to purchase
food. It is great to see how technology can help during disasters.
Electricity
was off throughout the city during the storm. 30 of the 32 electrical circuits
were knocked out of service by Isaac. After a couple of days we had electricity
again. Other areas of the city took longer to restore to service. The invertor
and generator came in handy to supply us with power during the city-wide
black-out. All EDH electrical circuits are now in service again. Isaac caused
336 million gourds ($8 million US$) damage to the electrical system of
Port-au-Prince. Isaac destroyed 230 transformers, 2,200 electric poles and
damaged 120 km of circuits. EDH did a good job at making repairs with the
limited resources that they have in the last couple of weeks.
The European
Community has given $3 million Euros to Haiti for Isaac disaster relief
funding.
Crime did
not come to a standstill during the storm. A 56-year-old woman was kidnapped as
Isaac passed through Haiti. It looks like the kidnappers saw the storm as a
good opportunity. A dead new-born baby was found on a street in the Christ-Roi
area of Port-au-Prince. It looks like a home-birth that went wrong. It wouldn’t
have been possible for the woman to go to the hospital while she was in labour
during the storm and I guess you could consider this baby’s death as an Isaac
victim.
This update
has been a natural disaster update for Haiti. Pray that the country re-builds
taking things like tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes into consideration.
That’s all
the news for today. Have a good weekend!
Karen
Bultje, Coram Deo
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