Weaker storm still brings Haiti misery-Added COMMENTARY By Haitian-Truth

Haiti avoided another major crisis but with destroyed homes, crops and roads, Hurricane Tomas still brought pain to the struggling nation.

BY CURTIS MORGAN, TRENTON DANIEL AND JACQUELINE CHARLES

cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

LES CAYES, Haiti — President Rene Préval flew to the regions hardest hit by Hurricane Tomas on Saturday as weary earthquake refugees began salvaging the meager, muddy remains of their shattered lives.

In Leogane, leveled by the January quake and drowned under Tomas’ worst flooding, residents picked through belongings, hung clothes and sheets in the newly arrived sun and trudged through thigh-high water running down the main road.

The consensus view from international aid groups, disaster managers and even the Haitian government was that the nation had been lucky this time, dodging the worst of Tomas and what many feared would be another massive catastrophe. The confirmed death toll through Saturday stood at eight, with two missing.

“If Tomas did not cause so many deaths, it is because we were lucky,” Préval said. “Tomas was not as strong as we expected.”

But hundreds of thousands of Haitians like Wilson Metellus did not feel fortunate. He’d lost his Leogane home to the quake and now Tomas had filled his crude tent with dirty water. “There’s nobody with a solution for this,” said Metellus, 45, as he padded barefoot through mud.

RELATIVELY LUCKY

The battered landscape under Préval’s helicopter as he flew to meet with representatives from Les Cayes and other southwestern coast cities and then on to normally lush Grand-Anse underlined that Haiti’s luck was relative.

There were no pancaked buildings or bodies in streets but it was still a disaster, particularly for a poor country burdened by a daunting rebuilding effort and struggling to contain a deadly cholera outbreak. Small coastal villages were swept away, roofs ripped off, tent cities turned to quagmires, roads washed out, crops ruined.

In Grand-Anse, residents greeted Préval with cries about destroyed homes and plantain plantations.

“The agriculture loss is total destruction,” said Jean-Miranord Duververge, 46.

While there, Préval approached managers of OAS construction, a Brazilian company already working on a road from Camp Perrin to Jeremie and asked them to redirect trucks and equipment to repair washed out roads that had left some towns cut off.

“Can you help us with the roads?” he asked in English. “We want you to fix the roads, so you will stop what you are doing.”

With many rivers swollen by rushing water the color of chocolate, there also was concern that Tomas’ damage wasn’t done. A representative from near Jacmel reported two people were washed away by a river on Saturday.

“The big problem today is flooding — massive flooding,” said Leonard Doyle, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.

There was an encouraging report from Gonaives, a north central coastal city where thousands were killed by overflowing rivers after storms in 2004 and 2008. Water was receding in the streets and river bank re-enforcement done by the U.S. Agency for International Aid appeared to keep the waters in check.

WORST COMBINATION

Drowning and mudslides weren’t the only flood worry. Medical experts fear the flood waters also could be a vector for cholera, which has killed nearly 450 people and hospitalized nearly 7,000 with fever, diarrhea and vomiting in the last month.

“Water and cholera is the worst combination you can have,” Doyle said.

Downgraded to a tropical storm, Tomas blew through the Turks and Caicos Islands overnight doing no serious damage, and posed no further threat to land as it headed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Norman Cox, a store owner on South Caicos, where 75-mph Tomas finally made landfall after threading between Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, said a boat suffered some minor damage when it washed ashore and his roof lost shingles in two spots.

In nearby Grand Turk, Darron Williams, an assistant superintendent of police, said he counted one downed light pole and one downed tree.

“It wasn’t much,” he said. “Listening to the Weather Channel will give you the impression we were going to get it bad. We didn’t.”

But even after it passed Haiti, Tomas still managed to extend its misery to Port-au-Prince. The capital city, packed with some 1.4 million living in makeshift settlements since the earthquake, had stayed relatively dry when Tomas brushed the southwestern tip of the island on Friday. Early Saturday, the heaviest rains came, flooding and destroying tents in some encampments.

In Leogane — where a billboard above the flood waters urged Haitians to vote in the Nov. 28 elections with the slogan “Yes, we’re voting for Haiti to become more beautiful” — the storm sparked residents to stage several protests about their living conditions.

Charles reported from Les Cayes, Daniel from Leogane and Morgan from Miami.

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COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG

It is interesting to watch the media manipulate figures.

And, after all, what do people have to judge things if it is not accuracy of the media – a rare element on today’s world.

During the 2004 – 2008 hurricane disasters, the world media reported low figures with regard to deaths involved. I reported “thousands” only to be ridiculed for my inaccuracy. I was there and saw the results. I saw the bodies. I saw the destruction.

Now, this article mentions thousands killed in 2004 – 2008.

The January quake was followed by body counts of 389,000 and 50, 000 amputees.

Soon the reports slipped to 300,000….then to “almost 300,000” and now we have something like 200,000. Handicapped hover around 5,000 which is a ridiculous figure.

What is the reason for this?

Is it a strategic effort to lower the need of Haiti?

To lower the validity of Haiti’s request for help?

I was present at a mass grave site that now holds over 50,000 people.

Perhaps, the future news reports will refer to this unmarked site as the resting place for a dozen or so..


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1 thought on “Weaker storm still brings Haiti misery-Added COMMENTARY By Haitian-Truth

  1. Poukisa nou pa vle bay laverite? Le M t ap etidye Syans Ekonomik,yon gwoup etidyan t ap travay sou yon pwoje.Nan konklizyon an, nou te dekouvri ke pa gen okenn syans k ap rive jwenn solisyon pou rezoud pwoblem bay anpil bouch manje sou te a anko ke” eliminasyon fzik” moun atrave lemond.

    Galbraith, yon gwo Ekonomis te montre nou sa byen kle nan refleksyon li yo. Konsa, tout mwayen bon pou elimine moun sitou nan ti peyi kamondis yo oubyen peyi pov soudevlope yo.

    Tout pwopozisyon ki te fet, sete favorize koripsyon nan system gouvenman peyi pov yo.Nan fason yo rekrite ajan koripsyon yo, se mete nan tet pouvwa chak peyi, moun ki pa vo pip tabak.Ofri yo mago dola vet epi bayo zam ankachet pou yo touye anpil moun nan popilasyon peyi lakay yo.

    Pwiske se yon laboratwa k ap travay pou jwenn wout pou touye anpil moun sou late, konsa, konfli ame yo pemet ke nan nivo mondyal, reprezantan peyi endistryel oubyen peyi rich yo kapab entevni nan zafe peyi yo ki nan konfli komsi, yo genyen maji pou yo rezoud konfli yo.

    Yo prepare moun pou kreye konfli ame atrave koudeta, masak,lapes, famin,katastwof,epidemi,pwostitisyon, koripsyon,revandikasyon polpile,divizyon,fo eleksyon,eksetera era.

    Kidonk, plis peyi yo nan mize, se pi fasil plan Jenosid pou detwi anpil moun nan ap gen sikse. Etandone ke moun ki nan tet pouvwa yo se aloufa pou gwo mago dola vet yo ye, konsa, yo devni pi wayalis pase wa, ebyen, yo pemet lokalman, Jenosid yo reyalize san pwoblem.

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    Mezanmi, nou pa dwe ap kite gouvenman Ayisyen yo ki fin pran gwo mago dola vet pou ekstemine popilasyon an ap fe nou fe plis tenten. Kote palmante yo te ye? kote ministe lajistis te ye?

    Pep Ayisyen, si nou kite gouvenman Preval la rive fe eleksyon lawont la nan peyi a, ebyen, apre 10 lane, pa p rete 10% moun nan polilasyon an anko.

    Yo pa p kite 1% moun po nwa nan peyi a anko.

    Make sa M di nou la a sou metal dekoupe pou nou pa bliye sa.

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