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In Haiti, no sign of relief for many after Hurricane Matthew

 
Hurricane Matthew left wide?spread destruction in Jeremie, a small city in western Haiti.
Hurricane Matthew left wide?spread destruction in Jeremie, a small city in western Haiti.
Published Oct. 9, 2016

LES CAYES, Haiti — Hundreds of thousands of people across Haiti's southwestern peninsula are grappling with upended livelihoods and no relief in sight after Hurricane Matthew struck the island nation.

The Haitian government's response has been slow to arrive in Les Cayes, the biggest city on the southwestern coast, or in the devastated villages around it. The mayor's office has dispatched some food trucks, and candidates for the presidential election, scheduled for today but postponed by the storm, have made personal donations. Western aid groups have given medical supplies to hospitals and clinics and have begun an assessment of needs in areas marooned from the rest of the country by washed-out bridges and downed trees.

While larger shipments of food and medicine by land and sea are on the way, aid workers estimate that a half-million people along the southern coast have still not been reached by outsiders since Matthew tore through the area on Tuesday. Dozens of places, many of them schools, are being used to house some 64,000 people in makeshift shelters, according to one person briefed by government and U.N. relief coordinators.

Cholera cases have spiked, including in towns that are still cut off, said Sean Casey, an emergency response team leader for the International Medical Corps who is working out of Les Cayes.

"A few people have walked out saying there are a lot of cases and people are dying," he said. "We're really concerned about cholera."

At least 470 people have died in one district of Haiti's southwest region, a civil defense official told the Associated Press on Saturday. But an informal tally by Reuters from unidentified local officials put the death toll at more than 800 people, although reliable statistics are scarce because of poor communications and isolated terrain.

Many people, including in the government, acknowledge that the needs far outstrip the available supplies.

"The whole town is destroyed," said Emmanuel Pierre, an aide to the mayor of Les Cayes. "Sixty to 70 percent of the roofs are gone. The population wasn't prepared for this."