A girl carries water from a bore hole, one of the few sources of clean water in the city of Gonaives after Hurricane Ike flooded the city. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

Once surrounded by acres of lush crops, Gonaives residents never had to travel far to fill their pantries. When one neighbor cooked, a small community was fed.

These are the memories that Gonaives born Marie St. Louis holds dear. “When I was in Haiti I never found a bad day in Gonaives,” says the petite 56-year-old parishioner of Saint James Catholic Church in North Miami, Florida. The fields were abundant with rice, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, shallots and avocado trees, she counts on each finger.

Of the church volunteers who helped pack relief shipments for Haiti, St. Louis seemed the most reserved and concentrated on her task. She was the only one from Gonaives. Of all of Haiti’s 10 departments that were affected by massive flooding, Gonaives got a triple dose of damage. Today, residents face a clean-up of tons of residual mud and crop rehabilitation.  Thousands of homes were destroyed, including St. Louis’ house in Gonaives.  
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Years of deforestation have left Haiti’s mountains bare. Photo by Brian Tabben for CRS

CRS staff in Haiti have provided us with photos of deforested mountains in the Seguin area of Haiti. Photos by Brian Tabben for CRS.

Severe deforestation continues to force Haiti into a cycle of disaster.

With 99 percent of its mountains plucked clean, annual storms cause immeasurable damage to low-lying cities and villages. We saw this with the past succession of storms–Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Ike–which affected each of the island-nation’s 10 departments.
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