Haiti Hit Hardest as Storms Bear Down on the Caribbean

As Hurricane Hanna, the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, follows close on the heels of Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustav, the Caribbean region is receiving little relief as storms bear down on its most vulnerable residents. With Tropical Storms Ike and Josephine on their way, the tiny islands in the hurricane belt off the coast of Florida are doing what they can to weather the effects of the storms.

Haiti, in particular, has been hit hardest. This week Gustav left more than 8,000 Haitians homeless in its wake. Now Hanna continues to dump rain on the already waterlogged country, causing life-threatening floods and mudslides. According to news sources, winds are ripping up trees, and flood waters are destroying houses. Local sources indicate that in certain areas, entire towns are being washed away as the waters continue to rise. All told, floods and mudslides from Fay, Gustav and Hanna have taken the lives of more than 100 people in Haiti, including a young girl who was part of a Nazarene church in Bombardopolis, a town in the northern peninsula.

Rev. Bill Dawson, French field coordinator, reports major flooding in all zones of the country. "The weather is so bad that no one can fly within the country to deliver relief, and flooding of major roads has made it impossible to drive to areas outside the capital to provide relief," he said. "All of our 11 district superintendents and dozens of our pastors are reporting major damage to homes, crops, losses of animals and personal losses across Haiti where some 8 million people live -- more than 108,000 of whom are our Nazarene brothers and sisters."

Towns like Fond Bertte and Les Cayes in the south, Gonaives in the central area and Bombardopolis in the northwest are facing unrelenting rains. Just four years ago, Hurricane Jeanne devastated Haiti with some of its worst flooding in a century. Three hundred thousand people were displaced, and more than a thousand people died as flood waters ripped through towns, reaching heights of 20 feet. According to Pastor Jeudy Gary, Gonaives, which was hit hardest in 2004, "is being affected by Hanna more than Hurricane Jeanne."

Families and individuals have been evacuating to the north and northwest into the hills, but they are now facing lack of adequate shelter as churches and schools are reaching their capacities. Nazarene pastors have been bringing evacuees into churches and trying to care for them as best possible. Since these storms are coupled with an already desperate country-wide shortage of food, however, the meager resources available to help people can only stretch so far.

Rev. Walliere Pierre, NCM coordinator for Haiti, said, “I am heart-broken at the loss my people are suffering."

Dr. John Smee, director of the Caribbean Region, added, “Already hit by storms in the past few weeks, now Hanna is bearing down on the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. We are preparing relief supplies, yet we already know they will need more than we can bring. More than a hundred thousand Nazarenes in Haiti are currently some of the most vulnerable of our global Nazarene family. We keep praying, and we keep seeking ways to reach those in our family with help in the next few days.”

The Caribbean Region is requesting $50,000 U.S. in immediate relief, but the cost of church and home repairs and replacement crops will far surpass this initial amount. In the coming days, families who have fled flooded hometowns that may take months to recover will also need to be relocated.