CRS’ program manager for Haiti, Greg Elder, is reporting from Gonaives.

The Haitian city of Gonaives is still only reachable by air and water. I sailed along the coastline with five other CRS staffers in an old fishing boat navigated by diving instructor well known in Port-au-Prince. Its insides had been stripped and there was plenty of room for supplies and the food provisions we carried in our bags to last us the 5-10 days we’d be in the field. It was a two-hour boat ride through debris littered water -empty bottles, trash, and pieces of wood stirred up by the hurricanes.

The Cathedral in the port city of Gonaives, Haiti, is currently sheltering up to 200 people in its upper level. Mud and waters from hurricane Ike flooded the church, but the upper level managed to stay dry. Photo by Greg Elder/CRS

The port of Gonaives was teeming with activity. There was a U.S. freighter with three landing crafts, those had been released and were taking supplies in to the city. Six helicopters flew overhead, carrying more supplies -including ours- from Port-au-Prince to Gonaives.

My first impression as I surveyed the city was of the very tall mountains devoid of any trees or grass. There was no foliage in sight: only rock and dirt. It was so barren, and it was very hot because there is hardly any shade. Mud caked buildings lined the Gonaives streets. People were scooping out bucketfuls of water or shoveling through the 3-4 feet of mud that Ike and Hanna had dumped into their homes. Overturned vehicles were everywhere, also cars and trucks that had either gotten stuck in the mud or had tried to cross while the water was rising.

The need is tremendous. As we drove through the streets people would see the CRS logo and run up to our truck with outstretched hands pleading for help. Every food distribution done by the World Food Program (WFP), for example, is guarded by U.N. troops. If a truck pulls up with food, people will chase it. They’ll follow it. One night, out of safety concerns, we left our truck parked by the police station. The next morning we had to walk through a wave of people. At least a 1,000 had gathered thinking there was going to be a food distribution. We had to maneuver our way out from the crowd with the help of the police.

CRS writer Kai T. Hill is in Miami reporting on local efforts to help Haiti and Cuba following a series of storms that battered the island nations.

For weeks I sat behind my desk at Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore processing details from storm-torn Haiti and Cuba. During emergencies we rely on updates and photos from the field to provide our Web readers and donors with “on the ground” accounts as quickly as possible.

Catholic Relief Services workers pick up supplies to be distributed in the port city of Gonaives, Haiti. Aid workers are shipping food and supplies by boat and air, as the roads leading up to the city remain inaccesible. Photo by Greg Elder/CRS

Yet, to my surprise the situation reports not only included details of the destruction and loss inside Haiti, but also the remarkable Church response by parishes and communities throughout the United States. From small towns like Gary, Indiana, to New York, New Jersey and South Florida, parishes are collecting money, residents are filling church halls with clothes, canned goods, food and other items. Volunteers are working around the clock to fill shipping containers headed for the ports.

As the associate web producer for CRS my current assignment is to tell the stories of lay Catholics and Church leaders who are donating money, goods and time for both islands. No better place to start is Miami, Florida—the closest point to Haiti and Cuba geographically and in heart and spirit.

CRS has shared a long relationship with the Archdiocese of Miami, where Archbishop Favalora recently sent a strong message for Catholics to live their faith through outreach for the suffering in Haiti and Cuba.

In the days leading up to my trip I made sure that I had enough notebooks to fill with quotes from people like Sister Hilda, a petite elderly nun, who is directing the Daughters of Charity’s collection efforts for Cuba in west Miami. In addition to helping the Daughters ship emergency items to Cuba, we recently learned that we have helped them obtain a warehouse to store the great volume of donated goods coming in each day.

CRS is grateful to its donors who make these efforts possible by contributing to our Latin America Severe Weather Fund. On the islands themselves we’ve been able to provide food and survival essentials for thousands of families in some of the hardest hit areas.

CRS’s relationship with the Daugthers goes back more than 10 years. For Haiti I plan to visit two key parishes, Notre Dame D’ Haiti located in the heart of Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood and Saint James parish in North Miami. It was only four months ago that I arrived at Notre Dame’s white gates to talk about the food crisis. Today, it’s the floods.

– Kai T. Hill

“Haiti’s government estimates 600 people are dead and another 850,000 people affected by four strong storms that pelted the country in the past month.”

That’s the opening paragraph of the CRS website’s latest update on Haiti.

The good news is that CRS staff and other aid workers have been able to get some food and other essential supplies to flood survivors. We’re awaiting further updates from our staff in Haiti.

A CRS staffer is quoted in this NPR story posted Friday, 9.12. Here’s a quote from the story:

“We got rice, bread, peanut butter, beans,” says Bill Canny, the country representative for Catholic Relief Services. “So it’s a packet to sustain a family of five for 15 days. We have trouble getting these to Gonaives — the roads have been closed. But there are plenty of places affected and we are getting it to other parts of the country that are equally suffering from the effects of the hurricanes.”

The NPR story also notes: “Catholic Relief Services first came to Haiti in response to Hurricane Hazel in 1954. It has grown into one of the largest aid agencies in the country.”

(more…)

We received this update today from Anne Toussaint Protection Advisor & Program Development Manager, CRS Haiti

Hanna wasn’t something that we saw coming. It was supposed to be a small storm that was just going to pass by the southern tip of Haiti. But it changed direction and lingered for several days. Many of my colleagues were caught in the field, caught in the flooding of Gonaives.

CRS staff in Haiti ready bags of peas as part of food supplies they’ll distribute to Haitians displaced by recent storms. Photo by Alix Innocent/CRS

In Haiti the streets are not closed like they are in the States. There are big potholes, open sewers. When the streets are completely flooded, and you’re tying to wade through the water, you can fall into these holes, or be taken away by the current.

I was fortunate that I got to wait out the storm from the safety of Port-au-Prince. It felt like a stormy day in the U.S. I had no idea how bad it was in the rest of the country until I started getting reports from the field. The things my colleagues saw were very graphic, people getting caught in the currents in Gonaives.

My first though was for the safety of women and children. Shelters are overcrowded. People are housed in churches and schools, neither of which is really equipped to house the number of people in need. With this level of overcrowding women and children become more vulnerable to violent attacks and sexual abuse. There are questions that we have to ask ourselves; are the men and women separated in the shelter? Are the shelters well lit and do they have separate bathroom facilities?

A colleague of mine was in a shelter—in a room with 400 people cramped together: women, men and children, with no access to hygiene. They have a little bit of food with nothing to do. It’s misery.

These questions arise after things die down a bit. It’s hard to do psychosocial work until the shelters are stable, and people have their basic needs met.

Sara A. Fajardo, Catholic Relief Services communications officer-Latin America/Caribbean, wrote this post from an interview with Anne Toussaint.

Greg Elder — Catholic Relief Services Deputy Head of Programming for Haiti — spoke from Haiti with Sara Fajardo. Greg reported on what he saw when he arrived in Haiti.

Some Haitians are resigned to annual storm and flooding disasters, but recent storms hit the country harder than normal. Photo by Alix Innocent/CRS

I was sitting in the Miami airport trying to make my way when Gustav hit. I’d just finished my home leave and all flights were grounded. I knew that immediately after the storm passed we needed to start responding.

We went through hurricane Dean last year, and tropical storm Noel, and that was bad enough. When a hurricane rolls around again those memories are fresh in your mind. Hurricanes are very much a part of daily life. Having two major storms last year, the gut reaction is — it’s happening again.

(more…)

Holly Inurreta- CRS Regional Technical Advisor for Emergencies -is on the ground in Haiti. She spoke via phone today with CRS Communications Officer Sara Fajardo. Here’s a portion of the story that developed from that conversation:

It rained so hard on Saturday and Sunday that the water once again reached 10 feet high. The people had two days reprieve and are now back in the same situation. The city is rivers, and people don’t have boats. Our local partners will get out as soon as possible, and as soon as the water gets down to a moveable level they’ll be out distributing.

Holly said CRS and partners were able to bring some supplies to Gonaives, a coastal city thrashed by four storms in the past few weeks. She also notes that Haiti is likely to see more storms before the end of the Hurricane season.

September 2, 2008–As if this struggling island’s food woes were not painful enough, poor Haitian families and farmers are now being brought to their knees by a series of severe storms.

The high-powered winds of Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna have passed, but the torrential rains and flooding have not ceased.

 “The whole country is now affected by severe flooding and heavy rains”, said Alix Innocent, director of CRS’ emergency unit in Port au Prince. “The situation is getting worse throughout the country”.

Gustav, a category one storm, struck last week, as families were recovering from the effects of Tropical Storm Fay which touched down in Haiti three weeks ago. Gustav dumped between 6 and 12 inches of rain in parts of the island, triggering life-threatening floods and landslides. Floodwaters raged down the country’s bare mountainsides into tin shack communities unable to withstand the
pressure.

Riding the coattails of Gustav was Hurricane Hanna, which made landfall September 1 as a tropical storm. All departments, including Les Nippes, in the south, and Gran Anse have suffered severe flooding, making it difficult to reach these people in need.

About 6,000 people fled to shelters throughout the western and southeast provinces. Approximately 250 houses have thus far been destroyed or damaged.

 “There is also new flooding in the south in Les Cayes and there are reports of flooding up to 3 to 4 meters in Gonaives in the north. It’s raining heavily here in Port-au-Prince,” said Innocent who was in the midst of distributing supplies to families hit by Gustav.

In response, CRS has been distributing food to 3,000 people and emergency supplies to 900 residents.  Assessment teams are currently touring flooded areas to determine damage and needs.

A People Suffering  

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with more than two-thirds of Haitians living on less than a dollar a day. Occupying the western third of the island of Hispaniola, Haiti, which is slightly larger than the state of Maryland, is home to about 8 million people. The nation’s dire poverty is exacerbated by the needs of a large population.

Crops throughout affected areas took an unfortunate blow. Compounded rainfall from the recurring storms drenched already fragile farmland. While the amount of acreage that was destroyed is still unclear, this year’s harvest would have provided some relief to families suffering from the high prices of food–most of which is imported.

Rains can be devastating for Haiti, which has lost 99% of its protective forestry. Its mountain terrain is extremely degraded and bare, leaving valleys susceptible to flash flooding and landslides. Many of these communities rely on food subsidies, especially as the country faces a food crisis. Losing their homes and crops to the storms mean even greater suffering.

CRS’ Work in Haiti

With more than 50 years of experience in Haiti, CRS is now one of the largest U.S. humanitarian organizations working in the
country. Serving nearly 200,000 of the poorest and most marginalized Haitians, our projects provide assistance with health and nutrition, disaster recovey, education, water and sanitation, HIV and AIDS, agriculture, and migration.