‘Nothing for Me to Do but Pray’

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The New York Sun

For members of the city’s vast Haitian community, stunned by news of Tropical Storm Jeanne, there is little to do but wait. The flooding caused by the hurricane has so far claimed 1,100 lives, but, with communication lines down, information has been slow to reach America. As a result, many New Yorkers have been left to agonize blindly over the fate of their friends and relatives back home.


“I can’t even tell you how frustrating this is,” said Tatoo Alouidor, a stockbroker living in Brooklyn who was born in a small town northwest of Gonaives, a city hit particularly hard by the flooding. Mr. Alouidor, whose family still lives in Haiti, found out last night that one of his cousins was killed by the flood.


Packed into the back of a barbershop on Nostrand Avenue, a street dotted with Haitian-owned restaurants, furniture stores, and bakeries, Mr. Alouidor and his friends play bezique, a French card game, to keep their minds off the tragedy. With few options on hand for those who want to help the Haitian victims, and with little in the way of telephone communication available, said Mr. Aloudoir, “There’s really nothing for me to do but pray.”


By yesterday, the death toll in Northern Haiti had risen to 1,110,while 1,250 people were unaccounted for. According to news reports, scores of corpses floated in murky, sewage-infested waters, alongside cows and donkeys. Potable water is virtually nonexistent. Food is scarce. Hospitals have been shut, leaving hundreds suffering from flood-related injuries and illnesses with nowhere to turn. Gonaives devolved into chaos yesterday, as residents, desperate and angry, burned tires and rioted.


Because of impassable roads, supplies have been slow to come – but help is on the way. The American government has pledged to provide more than $2 million in aid in the next few days and similar pledges have been made by the United Nations, members of the European Union, and Venezuela.


Pierre Louis, who moved to America 22 years ago from Gonaives, spoke to his sister-in-law in that city last night for the first time since Sunday. “Right now, she’s waiting for help,” he said, “but the help is not enough.”


Unlike many Haitians who were unable to escape the deadly floods, Mr. Louis’s sister-in-law saw the water coming and quickly moved herself – and all her possessions – upstairs to a higher floor of her apartment building. From there, she watched as her mother’s house collapsed to the ground.


Mr. Louis raised his voice and came close to tears as he recounted his conversation with his sister-in-law. “She told me,” he said, “that if you haven’t seen somebody since Sunday, they’re probably dead.”


Others express more hope.


The station manager at Radio Soleil d’Haiti, New York’s 24-hour Haitian radio station, has received countless phone calls from Haitian New Yorkers who are panicked because they cannot get in touch with their relatives. “I tell them, first off, calm down,” Ricot Dupuy said. “If they’re not able to reach their family, it doesn’t mean they are dead. There is no land-line phone communication there – only cell phones. And most Haitians don’t have cell phones.”


Radio Soleil, along with other Haitian organizations such as the Alliance Gonaivienne and the Flatbush Haitian Center, is working to send food, clothing, and medical supplies to Haitian flood victims.


But the executive director of the Haitian Centers Council, Henry Frank, said: “It’s very difficult to get stuff there because the area is just not accessible. We’re trying to rush things to Haiti – but it’s not easy.”


At the Flatbush Haitian Center, in the heart of Brooklyn’s Haitian community, people were contacting the executive director, Jean-Claude Belizaire, all day.


“People right now still don’t have the full picture,” he said. “They don’t know how many Haitians are dead – they’re getting news from here and there.”


Mr. Belizaire said that a woman came in, worried and upset because she couldn’t call her mother to see if she was okay. “What could I tell her? It’s impossible because there are no phones,” he said.


And the worst, it turns out, is yet to come. A Miami-based reporter who has been covering the flood for Haiti Progres, Kim Ives, said that while the floodwaters are beginning to recede, the situation is certainly going to get worse.


“When the floodwaters recede,” he said, “you’re going to have cholera, malaria, dengue fever – these diseases are going to go through the roof. Plus, food supplies, crops – they’ve all been destroyed. You’re going to have a situation where people are going to be desperate.”


The New York Sun

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