After hurricane Ike, Haiti copes with aid delays -and four hurricanes....

[Breeze54]

IN AS MANY WEEKS! O.M.G. !!!!!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0915/p04s02-woam.html

This weekend, Hollywood star Matt Damon and Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean
urged people to help the UN raise more than $100 million for supplies.

By Reed Lindsay | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the September 15, 2008 edition

GONAIVES, HAITI -

Before hurricane Ike hit, Haitians were already suffering from skyrocketing food prices
that sparked nationwide protests and forced out the prime minister in April.

Now, nearly two weeks after a muddy deluge killed more than 100 and left tens of thousands
homeless in this city, hunger is rampant as humanitarian aid is delayed and prices soar even higher.

"The water took everything we had," says Rosemarie Pierre, who has been living on the second floor
of Gonaives's cathedral with her son and four grandchildren since losing her home to tropical storm Hanna.

"Some neighbors gave us food. But it's not enough."

Four years ago, tropical storm Jeanne killed some 3,000 people in this city and the surrounding area. The death
toll from Hanna has not been as high, but Gonaives residents and aid workers say that in many ways the devastation
has been worse.

And Hanna was followed by Ike, flooding Gonaives for the second time in a week and destroying a bridge that represented
the last land route into the city.

"It has been a nightmare getting food to Gonaives," says Raphael Chuinard, an official for the United Nation's
World Food Program, who is overseeing the emergency food distribution.

But the biggest stumbling block to delivering aid, according to Rene Wagemans, who is coordinating the UN's relief efforts,
has been avoiding violence. "We feel tension rising," says Ms. Wagemans. "The last thing we want are riots during the distribution."

Aid hand-outs had been limited to bottled water and high-energy biscuits, but on Thursday, the UN began delivering rice, beans,
and oil to the city's shelters aimed at feeding people for two weeks.

"The situation is improving," says Mr. Chuinard. "The social tension has really gone down and the streets are getting back to normal."

This weekend, Hollywood star Matt Damon arrived with Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean to hand out rice, beans, and cooking oil in Cabaret, a town that saw 60 people die in flash floods. In 2005, Mr. Jean established the Yéle Haiti foundation, providing aid, arts and sports programs, and scholarships for thousands of schoolchildren. Both celebrities urged people to help the UN raise more than $100 million needed for food and supplies.

"We've only seen the beginning of this crisis," says Max Cosci, of Doctors Without Borders, which is running one of four small health centers in Gonaives.

Mr. Cosci says most of those wounded during the impact of the flooding have been treated, but he is now beginning to see patients with other illnesses.

The flow of aid should ease as floodwaters in Gonaives descend and the road from Port-au-Prince is reopened, which could happen in the coming days. But greater challenges loom.

More.....

[cwydro]

1. It is tragic what is happening in Haiti.

To be hit by so many storms on top of all their other woes.

Here in the Keys we are raising money for victims in both Cuba and Haiti.

[Karenina]

2. . .