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“Yesterday, Port au Prince was in a state of panic. It was extremely windy and raining hard. Many houses no longer have roofs, trees are uprooted, light poles with electric lines are down but this is nothing compared to the devastation which has struck other communities throughout the country.
We are receiving calls from our partner organizations with horrible news about their communities.
In Gros Morne, we just spoke to Mme Cedieu who said that she lost everything her crops and her animals. She said that the land cultivated by our partner organization, AGPCM (Association Gwoupman Plante Gwo Mon), was devastated, all the plantain trees are down. Fortunately our experimental field is still standing, not too many trees were destroyed, the irrigation pump will need to be repaired. I have not talked to the Bernagea the staff member at the Center, to find out about the conditions at the Center for Plantain Propagation. We are still trying to reach him.
Tidjo and Mago called us this morning and told us that the waters are beginning to recede in Gonaives, and at Tidjo’s house as well. Tidjo has lost everything and there are now over 60 people seeking shelter on Tidjo’s rooftop. They have not had anything to eat in 3 days.”
September 3, 2008
Josette Perard Lambi Fund's Haiti Director





First aid ship arrives in Haiti
A ship carrying 33 tons of relief supplies from the United Nations docked in
Gonaives, where conditions have been described as catastrophic.
Three storms in less than 21 days have killed more than 200 people, Haitian
officials say.
The UN has said up to 600,000 people may be in need of help.
The port city of Gonaives bore the brunt of the storm, forcing thousands of
people to seek shelter on rooftops and balconies as flood waters rose.
The BBC's Joseph Guyla Delva, who accompanied a team from the UN's peacekeeping
mission as they flew by helicopter over the area, says many houses have been
damaged or destroyed, and that authorities estimate 80% of Gonaives' population
has been affected by the storm.
Senator Yuri Latortue, who represents the city, said about 200,000 people there
had not eaten for three days.
"In Gonaives alone we have some 70,000 people in shelters, and around 250,000
around Gonaives City need our assistance and that of the government, and
throughout the country I would say around up to 600,000 people might require
our assistance."
The storms, Mr Boutroue said, were likely to deepen further Haiti's already
extreme poverty.
Sept. 5, 2008





Rescuers can't get aid to starving Haitian city
Some 250,000 people are affected in the Gonaives region, including 70,000 in 150 shelters across the city, according to an international official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Argentine Lt. Sergio Hoj estimated that half of Gonaives' houses remained flooded Thursday.

Many houses were torn apart. Families huddled on rooftops, their possessions laid out to dry. Overturned cars were everywhere, and televisions floated in the brown water.

Gonaives - a collection of concrete buildings, run-down shacks and plazas with dilapidated fountains - lies in a flat river plain between the ocean and deforested mountains that run with mud even in light rains. Hanna swirled over Haiti for four days, dumping vast amounts of water, blowing down fruit trees and ruining stores of food as it swamped tin-roofed houses.
Sept 3 2008




Dear Friends of Haiti Soleil,
Many of you have been sending messages expressing concern about the impact of Hurricane Gustav and Hanna on Biblioth=E8que du Soleil, our library in Haiti. Hanna in particular has become the deadliest storm of the season. So far 137 people have been killed by the storm. In Port-au-Prince, trees have been uprooted, light poles and electric lines are down, and many houses are now roofless. But as someone living in Haiti said, "this is nothing compared to the devastation which has struck other communities throughout the country." The city of Gonaives, in particular, is dealing with major floods and mudslides.
From: Nadege T. Clitandre

Miami Herald Media Company - Hanna flooding strands hungry Haitians on rooftops

Posted on Wed, Sep. 03, 2008
Hanna flooding strands hungry Haitians on rooftops
By JONATHAN M. KATZ

Entering a flooded city on inflatable boats, U.N. peacekeepers found hundreds of hungry people stranded for two days on rooftops and upper floors Wednesday as the fetid carcasses of drowned farm animals bobbed in soupy floodwaters.
Haiti seems cursed this hurricane season, with its crops ruined and at least 126 people killed by three storms in less than three weeks. Even as Tropical Storm Hanna edged away to the north, forecasters warned that a fourth storm Hurricane Ike - could hit the Western hemisphere's poorest country as a major storm next week.
"If we keep going like this, the whole country is going to crash," moaned Mario Marcelus, who was trying to reach his family in Gonaives but didn't dare cross the floodwaters.

Miami Herald

A busy hurricane season has hit Cuba and Haiti where it hurts most: in the heart of agriculture. This hurricane season hasn't just brought death, but also destruction to those two countries as well as to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, washing away months of food staples at a time when nations face rising global food and fuel prices.
For Haiti, the toughest loss was in the Artibonite Valley, the heart of the country's already paltry breadbasket. Cuba suffered agricultural losses on both coasts, where storms wiped out not just the bananas that farmers scrambled to recover, but the entire sugar cane crop, 135,000 tons of citrus and a staggering 700,000 tons of food.
Sept 21 2008

The Associated Press

More than 10,000 people have left Gonaives on foot, swimming and wading through
floodwaters and heading for the next town about 45 miles to the south, said
Daniel Rouzier, Haiti chairman of Food for the Poor. ''The exodus out of Gonaives is massive,'' he said.
Rescue convoys have been blocked for days by floodwaters, collapsed bridges and
washed-out roads. A U.S. plane from Miami delivered enough relief supplies for
20,000 people to the capital Thursday, much of which was brought to Gonaives by
a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and by air.
September 5

News Briefs from the Haiti Support Group

Four storms - Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike - have hammered Haiti since mid August, killing 600 people and leaving 800,000 in dire need of help after destroying houses, infrastructure and crops.
The World Food Programme, the U.N. food agency, said its operation in Haiti was proving very difficult because of the colossal destruction to infrastructure, which means most aid can only be brought in by air or sea.
"We would urge donors who have promised money to get it in our coffers as soon as possible so we can keep our pipelines flowing," said WFP spokeswoman Hilary Clarke.
"Our biggest concern is that an estimated 70 percent of Haiti's agriculture has been destroyed, which is indeed extremely serious," she added.
"The hurricane has come at a very bad time because crops like rice and maize were seedlings and it has washed them all away. And cash crop trees like mango and banana trees have suffered terrible devastation."
Clarke said another major worry was that many people who had lost their homes needed to buy basic household items, reducing the amount they could spend on food.
Sept 26 2008