Ouanaminthe

Just February last year, I traveled to a part of Haiti that I had never been before, Ouanaminthe, which is in the north. I just wanted to post a couple of updates that I received from that part of the country.

1/17/10 12:39am

" Just a quick report concerning the return of our relief team...

The relief team from Institution Univers returned early this morning (Sunday) around 2:00 a.m. Hugues Bastien’s verbal report can be summed up in the word which was reiterated in virtually every one of his sentences – awful.

The capital city is destroyed. There is no food, clean water, or sanitation. The few remaining medical facilities are absolutely overwhelmed. All of Port-au-Prince is in ruins.

The relief team distributed their supply of food and water, and were almost overtaken by the push of bodies to get the supplies. They witnessed helicopters dropping bundles of food and water from the air. You can imagine the mayhem as survivors scrambled to get at the packages. Our team treated some of the worst victims and then contributed their remaining medical supplies to an established medical center in Leogane.

In terms of percentage of physical devastation, Hugues thought that Leogane, a town about one hour west of Port-au-Prince , was hit worse than the capital. He estimated that 80% of Leogane’s buildings were lying in ruins. The nursing school, where four of our grads were studying, is still standing, but unsafe with major cracks in the walls. Nonetheless, the population of the capital city suffered worse because of the density of population and closely built structures of multiple floors.

Our team left Ouanaminthe Friday morning before dawn with one of our I.U. buses, our pick-up, and a rented bus. Once in the capital, through a miscommunication with the driver of the pick-up, the fuel which the team had taken with them was given away before filling up our vehicle rather than after. So they drove north with just a bit of fuel in the tank, and finally found fuel for sale at an exorbitant price, but considered it a bargain considering the horrible state of affairs.

They brought back over 100 people to Ouanaminthe. The pick-up was stuffed inside and out. The bus was full both inside and on the roof. Many other vehicles were headed north with similar overloading.

our high school assistant principal, discovered that his wife is okay, but his 15-year old daughter along with many other students in her school died... A former employee of UMC, and his mother died in the quake.


The government’s Northeast Department director of education died. Several senators, other top governmental officials, heads of police stations, and many U.N. personnel died – and untold tens of thousands more. I don’t know if we ever will have an accurate count of the dead. Estimates range from 50,000 to 500,000. Some bodies have already been covered in mass graves and many are uncounted under the rubble. But still many, many corpses are lying exposed, bloated, and stinking. People are becoming accustomed to them, sitting next to them, sleeping next to them, for lack of any place else to go.

...

On the way to the capital, our I.U. bus broke down on the way to Port-au-Prince and was left in Terrier Rouge, a northern city. The pick-up developed steering and brake problems but managed to complete the trip. So our means of making a quick second trip to the capital is handicapped.

The President has declared the nation in mourning for a month. Therefore all schools will be closed nationwide at least for that time period. We’ll see if schools are permitted to reopen after that.

The good news, if there is any, is that the team witnessed no gang activity or looting, but people are desperate for water and food.

Hugues concluded with, “Awful, awful, awful. No sanitation, no clean water, no food, no medicine. Everyone wants to leave the city. Port-au-Prince is no more.”

Lamentations"

1/13/09 3:28pm


"However, I just got out of an administrators meeting for Univers. It is the opinion of the group that the situation is so catastrophic that everyone that can do something must do something, and the sooner the better. So.... tomorrow morning Hugues, with one of our doctors and a couple of our nurses with fill up our bus with food, bottled water, TP, basic medicines, dressings and fuel – and they will make the 10-15 hour trip to Port-au-Prince. They will treat the wounded and sick, and give away the supplies. They will also bring back to Ouanaminthe, residents of Ouanaminthe who want to return. They will also search for four of our recent graduates who were enrolled in a nursing school in Leogane about 50 miles west of the capital. We have not heard from them since the quake. (Note: the epicenter was about 10 miles west of the capital, so the quake likely hit Leogane with virtually the same force that it hit P-au-P.)

We have heard that the price of bottled water and food has risen ten-fold since the quake. With the banks closed, it means there is less money to buy more expensive essentials.

So, please, if you are so inclined you can send your “earthquake relief” contributions to www.haiticocina.org.

Coveting your prayers for the safety of the team led by Hugues to the capital, on the road, for the bus, in the capital, for our four missing students, for a broken nation"