October 12, 2016 — Over 1,000 people have died in Haiti
after Hurricane Matthew slammed the country on October 4. While the Jesuits in
Haiti reported no injuries or material losses from the disaster, Jesuit Father
Miller Lamothe, the French Canada Jesuits’ provincial delegate in Haiti, said, “The
more news comes, the more we realize the seriousness of the situation. It’s a
large-scale disaster.”
Fr. Lamothe noted that several of the Haitian Jesuits’ families
in hard-hit areas had been affected. Grandparents of one Jesuit scholastic were
seriously injured, and many Jesuits’ families’ houses were destroyed.
Water stands on the floor of the roofless Bishopric Chapel Oct. 7 in the Diocese of Les Cayes, Haiti, in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. (CNS photo/Ruddy Narcisse, PROCHE)
“I feel strong desolation and pain for that
natural disaster,” said Haitian Jesuit Pierre Edward Luc, a scholastic
currently studying theology at Regis College in Toronto. “It is depressing
because it seems like there is no life in the area touched by the hurricane.
There is a reality of despair because we cannot communicate with our relatives
and friends in the areas affected by the hurricane.”
Destroyed homes are seen Oct. 5 in Jeremie, Haiti. (CNS photo/Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters)
Emergency aid has slowly begun to reach some of the
thousands of Haitians displaced by the hurricane in the southwest. Emergency
supplies that had been stored in warehouses before the storm were being
distributed to people whose homes were turned into matchsticks by Matthew, said
Chris Bessey, Haiti country director for Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
People walk past damaged buildings Oct. 9 in Port-a-Piment, Haiti. (CNS photo/Andres Martinez Casares, Reuters)
CRS
staff flew into Les Cayes, a city of 71,000 on the southwest coast. Bessey
said thousands of people remained in shelters in the city. "I don’t know
if that is decreasing. I imagine that won’t decrease all that quickly because
more than 80 percent of the houses were damaged or destroyed," he said.
Residents salvage items from their destroyed home Oct. 5 after Hurricane Matthew swept through Les Cayes, Haiti. Emergency teams in Haiti struggled to reach areas cut off by washed-out bridges and mudslides after Matthew roared over the nation’s western tip and began an island-hopping path toward the U.S. coast. (CNS photo/Andres Martinez Casares, Reuters)
Health care workers were also becoming increasingly
concerned that cholera would explode throughout the worst hit areas of the Grand’Anse
and South departments because of a lack of water and sanitation. Cholera, a water-borne
disease, was brought into Haiti in 2010 by U.N. peacekeeping troops. More than
800,000 cases and nearly 10,000 deaths have since been attributed to the illness
by Haiti’s Department of Public Health and Population.
A boy rests at a makeshift hospital while receiving treatment for cholera in Port-a-Piment, Haiti. (CNS photo/Andres Martinez Casares, Reuters)
In a telegram, Pope Francis offered condolences to “all
those who lost a loved one” and assured “the injured and all those who have lost
their homes and belongings” that he was close to them through prayer.
A woman prays in a roofless church in Torbeck, Haiti, Oct. 9. (CNS photo/Andres Martinez Casares, Reuters)
Meanwhile in the U.S., at least 33 have died from the storm.
Catholic Charities agencies joined emergency response efforts in coastal
communities in North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida as residents and
parish staffers began to assess the damage Matthew left behind.
A man carries some of his belongings from his home in Lumberton, N.C., as floodwaters rise Oct. 9 in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. (CNS photo/Chris Keane, Reuters)
You can help those affected by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti
through the following organizations:
- Catholic Relief Services: www.crs.org
- Development and Peace – Caritas Canada: www.devp.org/en (English) or www.devp.org/fr (French)
- Mission Office of the Jesuits in French Canada,
where donations will be forwarded to Bishop Gontrand Décoste, SJ, to support
victims of the Jerémie region: https://ow.ly/6fDg3054X4O
To help those in the U.S., visit www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.
[Sources: Jesuits (French Canada Province, Conference of Canada and the United States) Catholic
Register, CNS, Catholic
Philadelphia]
