Hurricane Update #3 – Wednesday 11AM
Today I rode down to the Operation Blessing Headquarters in Tabarre, Port Au Prince. On the drive, we saw some downed trees and power lines, but the roads have already been cleared.
The haitian community is quick to respond, and strong, they can handle downed trees fairly quickly with machetes, and they are doing that well.
Port Au Prince looks good (mostly).
The rivers are quite dangerous and have claimed some housing and property. Hopefully no lives were lost there, but we won’t know for a while.
I’ve asked some friends about road conditions and there is flooding in Leogane that would not be passable by car, and that Scott Payne stood at the bridge to Lavaneau for a while (which is passable), but saw no cars coming to Jacmel from the north, which sounds like the road may not be passable, although it could be that no one can even get to Dufort to start heading south.
I have checked in with the guys, and read more reports from Jacmel. It seems that most things were spared in Jacmel. In the words of Waly, God was protecting Jacmel. Kara at Hotel Cyvadier said they survived fine, despite being oceanfront.
Similar to hear, there are trees and power lines down, and some tin roofing missing from houses.
Unfortunately, all of Haiti was not so lucky.
Dame Marie has been completely out of communication for over 24 hours, and is completely cut off from the rest of the country by flooded roads. It is a community of 40,000+ that was hit hardest by the storm. Operation Blessing, MAF, and many other organizations are working on how to get aid out to this isolated and devastated community.
I have not gotten any more from Smiley out in the Savenette (outside Les Cayes) that a message that said “Not Good.”
I have heard reports of chest high water in downtown Les Cayes, and the river is high, fast, and terrible.
Another missionary said that he thinks every piece of tin in Les Cayes is gone and every tree is down. It may be an overestimate, but it gives an idea of the amount of destruction.
Sadly, the road between Petit Goave and Grand Goave suffered a broken bridge, so there is no way to get help by truck yet.
Will keep you posted as more is learned.
A few resources to know:
Operation Blessing (www.ob.org) is working on relief efforts from their base in PAP, trying to find a way to get to the south.
Maxima is going to start building emergency shelters again, though they run about $3000 per house. They are rated to Cat 3 hurricanes, and have stood well for the 6 years since most of them were installed after the earthquake. We MAY try to work with them in the future, but I’m not sure we’ll have the budget to keep up with the need.
We will be working on getting west to help out as possible, hiring our guys as labor to provide relief as we go.
God bless.
