Articles

‘I could have died in this city.' Some Haitians brave gangs, gunfire to deliver aid

Miami Herald / Jacqueline Charles, Alex Daugherty, Michael Wilner, Syra Ortiz Blanes / August 18, 2021

As government help trickles into southwest Haiti after Saturday's 7.2 magnitude earthquake, some Haitians are braving gang-controlled roads to bring in aid on their own.

Widler "Wid" Octavius, a Haitian singer-songwriter, arrived in the coastal town of Port Salut on Wednesday afternoon with a truck full of personal hygiene items.

But his vehicle had broken down about halfway between Port-au-Prince and Port Salut, forcing them to spend the night. After repairing their truck, Octavius and his companions were attacked the next day by armed bandits who fired on them after police in Les Cayes refused to provide an escort.

"I feel I have a duty toward my fellow Haitians, that's the reason I said, ‘Why don't I make an effort and why can't I do what I can,' " Octavius said. "I don't need to wait on the government, I don't need to wait on an organization, I said let me see what I can do with my friends and support my brothers."

Octavius said he eventually got two police escorts after calling friends as they got closer to Port Salut.

"I could have died in this city," he said about Les Cayes, where he briefly distributed donations before continuing on.

On Wednesday, aid began to trickle into southwest Haiti by truck. Some of the aid came from established aid organizations. And some of it came from individual Haitians trying to help.

In Port Salut, a police vehicle was escorting a cargo truck with food. A UNICEF truck was also moving toward the town under police escort.

West of Les Cayes, a man in a driving school vehicle was throwing out bags of bread. As he was driving by, people were running up and he was passing it out of his car.

But many Haitians are frustrated at the pace of aid. Overall, the scope of the response effort was limited. Complaints continued about the lack of aid that has gotten into southwest Haiti so far and there is a need for shelter.

The U.S. government said Wednesday it's too early to send tents and tarps to Haiti, as Haitians who have been forced outside for days in remote, rural areas near the earthquake's epicenter clamor for shelter.

"I don't think we've gotten to that point yet. Right now we're on the acute response," a senior administration official told the Miami Herald on Wednesday, asked whether the United States plans to provide tents.

"Right now we're basically looking to establish a base of operations in Les Cayes, and other affected areas, and haven't gotten there," the official continued, adding: "Throughout the conversations we've been having, we've been making sure that we're obviously deriving lessons on what worked and didn't work in our response to the 2010 earthquake."

By late Wednesday, the death toll in Haiti had climbed to 2,189, and the number of injured to 12,269, according to the Office of Civil Protection. Grieving survivors spoke of their need for help.

Frank Morin, 43, lost his 9-year-old daughter, mother and three other family members in the earthquake. Morin, who works for the Ministry of Agriculture as a driver, said he and his family need shelter after his home he built after the 2010 earthquake was destroyed.

"I'm the only one standing here who's taking care of everything," Morin said. "What made me feel bad is that last night the rain started to come and I saw the people sleeping in it. Everybody got wet, we were all getting wet and we were already in shock."

Morin said even as a government employee he's been unable to get a tent or shelter.

"I feel as if I don't live in a country and I don't have a government," Morin said.

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who represents thousands of Haitian Americans in her Miami-based district, said shelter is an immediate need for victims but said developing "tent cities" like what happened after the 2010 quake is not an option.

"The tent cities in 2010 were a disaster," Wilson said. "Women were brutally raped. I'm sure they're not going to do that again."

Wilson said the U.S. government is prioritizing sending individual shelters that can better withstand heat and rain to families, as opposed to developing large, camp-style tent cities.

The United States Agency for International Development said Wednesday it does not have plans at this time to distribute tents. Instead, USAID partner agency IOM (the International Organization for Migration) is distributing 600 shelter kits in Les Cayes and Nippes to help families whose homes were damaged by the earthquake make repairs.

The kits include rope, nails and other hardware.

"USAID's [Disaster Assistance Response Team] continues to conduct assessments and coordinate with local authorities in affected communities to determine shelter needs and response options," a USAID spokesperson said.

Catholic Relief Services distributed plastic sheeting and other home repair materials to 180 families in Les Cayes on Wednesday.

ONGOING RESCUE EFFORTS

The Aerial Recovery Group, a disaster management response organization, said Wednesday it transported three critically injured patients by air from the Ofatma Hospital to facilities in Port-au-Prince.

Britnie Turner, chief executive officer of the Aerial Recovery Group, said that among the most common injuries she had witnessed were fractures being tended to with cardboard casts.

"So many broken bones. Femur after femur [because] of walls just falling on people," she said. "And they are still not in critical enough condition to evacuate them to another hospital."

The U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday it had saved "more than 15 people" and "flown 20 evolutions" within the last 24 hours. Since Sunday, the Coast Guard said it had saved 67 people, transported 143 disaster and relief personnel and delivered 5,500 pounds of disaster relief and supplies.

UNICEF said Wednesday that 94 of the 255 schools in Haiti's South department are completely destroyed or have sustained partial damage. Assessments have yet to take place in Nippes and Grand'Anse departments, as well as other communities that have yet to be reached.

"It will be extremely difficult for parents, teachers and the government to get children safely back to school just three weeks from now, when schools reopen on September 7," said Bruno Maes, UNICEF's Representative in Haiti, after visiting a damaged school in Mazenod, near Les Cayes. "But it is so crucial for children who have just gone through this traumatic earthquake plus extreme weather experience, to have the normalcy and stability of being in a classroom with their friends and teachers."

UNICEF estimates that it will need $15 million to respond to the most urgent needs of at least 385,000 people, including 167,000 children under the age of 5, for a period of eight weeks.

U.S. Southern Command said Tuesday evening that the USS Arlington, an amphibious transport dock, will arrive in Haiti on Wednesday to act as a mobile platform with a couple dozen medical staff if needed. The two larger floating hospitals, the USNS Mercy and Comfort, are less likely to be deployed to Haiti. The Comfort is under repairs while the Mercy is "probably larger than needed," a Southcom official said.

OFFICIALS IN MIAMI

Wilson said U.S. officials from USAID, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security will be at Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic Church in Little Haiti on Thursday to speak with the Haitian-American community and provide updates on disaster relief efforts.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will also be present. Mayorkas announced a Miami visit last week, before the earthquake, to speak with Miami's Cuban-American and Haitian-American communities about pro-democracy protests in Cuba and the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

"They have people who have been complaining about the hunger and the water and the sanitation and the security and the shelter," Wilson said of calls she's received from constituents with family in Haiti. "Now how fast they're getting it? I don't know if it's fast enough. I'll try my best to find out tomorrow. I do know [my constituents] are complaining."