ReliefWeb

Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti, especially the Sud and Grand’Anse departments, on October 4, leaving a trail of devastation behind. Pictures of the catastrophe and the destruction it has brought to Haiti continue to emerge, displaying the emergency situation Haitians are living in.

A team of 35 people were divided into 8 mobile emergency and assessment teams and were pre-positioned in secured shelters on 7 sites along the southern coasts, in the Sud and Grand’Anse departments. The latter were the hardest hit departments, hence the pre-positioning of ACTED teams in these areas. ACTED wanted to ensure immediate assessment of the damages and needs of the affected populations, especially those that were isolated from the rest of the country due to landslides and floods.

In the wake of the disaster, ACTED immediately started providing food aid, rice bags, drinking water, primary needs goods, plastic cans, plastic tarpaulins, blankets, chlorine tablets for water purification, as well as hygiene kits, and mosquito nets.

We sat with Emilie Bernard, Country Director of ACTED Haiti, to get a deeper insight into the unfolding of the disaster, its aftermath and the current situation in Haiti.

Can you describe to us the first three days?

Before the hurricane, our teams helped the Civil Protection Agency (DPC) with the evacuation of people. We sent 8 emergency teams to the field 48 hours before the hurricane. Logistics and coordination teams went along with them. During the hurricane, of course, they were all inside the shelters. When the hurricane began to arrive, people started to panic and asked our teams to come in and stay with them in the same shelters. They took in as many as they could.

The first three days were quite complicated and stressful. For the first 72 hours, we couldn’t communicate with our teams that had been positioned on the path of Matthew in secured shelters to have the capacity to reach out immediately to the populations in need. We had put some security protocols in place, in anticipation of the gap of communication and road blocks, because we knew it was going to be complicated with the hurricane. Our teams were all fine at the end.

What was the first thing ACTED teams did in response to the hurricane?

We started large food and water distributions on the 19th, two weeks after the disaster. Before that, we covered more specific needs with localised distributions and aid delivery. It took two weeks to bring essential aid to the area, given the scale of the needs and the challenges in terms of logistics. But the logistics teams were able to overcome most of the difficulties: accessing transportation needs, accessing remote areas, finding warehouses to store the goods we were receiving, etc.

However, it has been really difficult as the areas that were hit are remote areas. So, logistics is quite a challenge. The week after the hurricane, we had another tropical depression. It was one week of heavy rain. People didn’t have any roof and didn’t have any food. So we started delivering food with helicopters and boats. The earthquake in 2010 was a major disaster too, in terms of the death toll of course, but with Hurricane Matthew, the area which has been impacted is really large. The impact is wider. Most remote areas still have no connection, so we’re not able to have any data on those areas and that’s a big issue. Moreover, the distributions are never enough, but we’re going forward with it.

Has there been a cholera outbreak?

Immediately after the hurricane, our teams went out and started to do first assessments and work on a cholera response to avoid another outbreak.

There has been an outbreak with more than 2,000 cases identified. It is a lot less heavy than we initially thought though. We can assume that our intervention actually helped limit its spread in an area already prone to cholera.

How did Haitians react to the disaster?

No one expected it to be this big. I spent quite a lot of time in Sud and Grand’Anse and have been speaking to elderlies, like 80 or 85-year-olds. They told me they couldn’t remember such a disaster. Haiti is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to natural disasters, and the elderlies have known many hurricanes and tropical storms. But they were all saying that those 24 hours felt like it was the end of the world. They couldn’t remember anything that strong. All the houses had no roof on top. Buildings, such as cathedrals, were totally destroyed. Even trees - hundreds years old trees - were gone. It has been a major shock and trauma, in the Sud.

A hurricane like this is very hard to live. It’s not like a tropical storm; we are used to that. It was a major hurricane. Nothing could stop it. You can’t do anything but watch everything flying around you. Hurricane Matthew had the particularity of having passed very slowly. Normally, a hurricane goes through in 3 or 4 hours. This one remained above us for 24 hours. That’s why the impact has been so big.

What’s the next phase?

The first phase of our emergency response was a multi-sectorial rapid assessment. It was really fast with the aim of capturing the big picture. Now, we are launching a new phase of sectorial assessments. We will launch the first emergency shelter response next week. We will distribute the first emergency shelter kit. But then hopefully, by December, we will begin to launch a safer shelter intervention.

What are the challenges facing Haiti now?

I am quite concerned about the recovery phase. The hurricane is not really mobilising a lot of funds at the international level because of the other crises, such as Mosul. Haiti’s visibility is quite limited right now in the media in Europe and the US. We might have heard a lot about Haiti the first two or three days, and now there is nothing. The needs are huge. It’s more than one million people left with nothing. So I am really concerned about this because all the agriculture production in these areas has been lost. The loss of agriculture hasn’t been only in the most impacted areas, but also on other parts of the country which have been less affected in terms of human loss and shelters. But in terms of agriculture, it’s a disaster. So, we’ll need to work on our agricultural recovery intervention. We don’t have the resources. It will be a major issue in the country. Haitian can no longer produce anything – there are no more any seeds or stocks, and that’s really concerning.

And then another challenge is the exodus of people leaving the Sud and Grand’Anse departments. When I was in Grand’Anse, every night we heard three or four busses full of people, maybe like 60 or 70 people, leaving to Port-au-Prince. It’s already a disaster in Port-au-Prince because there is no food for people and there are no jobs. They’re leaving everything behind. But they don’t have anything left anyway. They take their children and maybe one bag - I don’t know with what inside - and they leave these areas. They don’t want to come back.

Why is ACTED still working in these areas if people are leaving to Port-au-Prince?

There are already more than two million people in Port-au-Prince, and the city doesn’t have any capacity to welcome anyone. I think our strategy would be to remain working on those areas and luring people to stay. “We are working there. We are working with you on your fields. We’re here if you need us. Just come back. There is nothing for you in Port-au-Prince and your lands are here.” Maybe eventually they will come back.

How long do you think disaster-stricken Haitians will depend on international aid?

If we don’t launch the agricultural recovery phase, they’ll depend on it for years. I mean, it’s really a major disaster when it comes to agriculture and food security in the months to come. So, we are advocating for launching such interventions at the latest in January. We can’t wait longer than that.

Anything you would like to add?

Don’t forget Haiti! I really fear it will become a forgotten cause. I think people are quite tired of Haiti because every two or three years something happens there. But that’s not a reason to forget it or stop helping Haitians. Maybe, it’s a reason to start thinking differently and to start working differently. I agree with that. But we will need resources to do that, and I am not sure we’re getting that.