PETIT GOÂVE – Amidst the remnants of what once was her home, Amizia Renotte sits on a shattered concrete slab, gesturing toward the mound of dirt that now marks the spot where her house stood. This desolation was wrought by the outer bands of Hurricane Melissa, which devastated Haiti’s southern region.
Although the Atlantic hurricane season has officially concluded, the aftermath of Melissa continues to haunt thousands across the Caribbean, including Renotte. Nearly two months have passed since the Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, ravaged the northern Caribbean, leaving many struggling for food and unsure of how to rebuild their shattered lives.
“We ran with nothing to save,” Renotte recalls, vividly painting the nightmarish scene of waking up amidst rising floodwaters.
The storm claimed at least 43 lives in Haiti, with Petit-Goâve bearing a significant brunt of the devastation. This southern coastal town, once vibrant with the activity of farmers and street vendors, now finds itself buried under heaps of dirt and mud.
In the heart of Petit-Goâve, the air is filled with the relentless groan of heavy machinery. Crews work tirelessly to clear the debris left behind by the ferocious La Digue River, which, in late October, swept away children, cars, and homes.
The groan of heavy machinery fills the air as crews slowly clear debris scattered by La Digue River, which swept away children, cars and homes in late October.
“People lost everything,” resident Clermont Wood Mandy said. “They lost their homes. They lost their children.”
Hunger persists
Petit-Goâve held a mass funeral in mid-November to say its goodbyes to loved ones, but hunger and frustration remain.
On a recent morning, people crowded around a small convenience store stocked with pasta, butter, rice and other basic items produced locally after receiving cash donations.
In line to buy something was 37-year-old Joceline Antoine, who lost five relatives in the storm.
“My house is destroyed,” she said.
Lola Castro, a regional director with the U.N.’s World Food Program, or WFP, who recently traveled to Petit-Goâve, said in a phone interview Friday that Melissa has deepened Haiti’s crises.
“Around 5.3 million people don’t have enough to eat every day in Haiti,” she said. “That’s a huge challenge.”
Castro noted that Petit-Goâve was an agricultural community that depended heavily on crops, including plantain, corn and beans.
“They have lost their income. They have lost their means of living,” she said.
‘No community will be forgotten’
Jamaica also is struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in the western part of the neighboring island in late October, causing an estimated $8.8 billion in damage.
The storm killed at least 45 people, and 13 others remain missing, with an additional 32 deaths under investigation, according to Alvin Gayle, director-general of Jamaica’s emergency management office.
Authorities have reported 30 confirmed cases of leptospirosis — an infection transmitted from animals — and another 84 unconfirmed ones, with 12 related deaths. There were also two cases of tetanus, one of them fatal.
“These figures underscore the scale of the human impact and the seriousness with which the ministries, departments and agencies of government continue to approach the recovery effort,” Gayle said.
More than 100 shelters remain open in seven of Jamaica’s parishes, housing more than 1,000 people.
Meanwhile, some 160 schools remain closed.
“No community will be forgotten,” Gayle said.
Jamaica recently announced that it obtained a $150 million loan to help restore electricity as quickly as possible, with officials saying they expect power to fully be restored by the end of January.
Jamaica also has obtained a $6.7 billion package for reconstruction efforts over three years from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean; the Caribbean Development Bank; the Inter-American Development Bank Group; the International Monetary Fund; and the World Bank Group.
Call for funding
In Cuba, hundreds of people remain in makeshift shelters nearly two months after the hurricane made landfall in the eastern region of the island hours after it hit Jamaica.
No storm-related deaths were reported in Cuba, where authorities evacuated more than 700,000 people from coastal areas.
Nearly a month after the storm, the U.N. said that about 53,000 people in Cuba had been unable to return to their homes, including 7,500 living in official shelters.
Castro, of the WFP, said that Hurricane Melissa affected 6 million people overall in the Caribbean, including 1.2 million in Haiti.
Around 1.3 million people in the region now need food, security or other type of support, with WFP so far helping 725,000 of them, Castro said.
She said she hopes that number will grow, noting that the agency’s $83 million appeal is only 50% funded.
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Dánica Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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