Haiti - Hurricane Tomas

The Situation:

On November 5, Hurricane Tomas moved through the "windward passage" between Cuba and Haiti. This left Haiti out of direct impact but the trailing edge of the storm blanketed the earthquake ravaged country with flooding rains. Local officials encouraged refugees living in temporary housing to evacuate, but few did out of fear that they would not have a home or belongings to return to. According to the Haitian Civil Protection, Tomas left over 20 dead with over 1,000 homes destroyed and thousands more damaged. While the actual impact of Tomas proved to be far less than the projected 100,000 families affected, health concerns have been heightened as flood waters contaminate water sources and provide for the spread of cholera that has left 3,980 dead as of January 24.

ELCA companion, Lutheran World Federation Haiti, has reported the worst damage in southwest Haiti where the entire coast of Grand’Anse, one of ten administrative districts in Haiti, was severely affected. Ten fishing villages, boats, fishing supplies and stores of seeds for agricultural production were destroyed by Hurricane Tomas in addition to significant damage to homes. Most families affected are in need of roofing supplies to protect their homes and support to recover their fishing businesses.

The Lutheran Church of Haiti (ELH) has reported similar accounts of Tomas’ impact in Haiti. The church is currently assessing the situation in areas of church location: Vialet, Fonds des Negres, Les Cayes, Jean Rabel. Church leadership will be meeting to analyze the reports and prepare any needed response.

UPDATE: It is reported that as of late January new cases of cholera have dropped drastically from 12,000 per week in November to 4,700 per week. Health officials though thankful for this drop in cases health officials are skeptical as to whether this is the beginning of the end or just a resting period for the disease pointing to the upcoming rainy season as a potential for more outbreaks to occur.

ELCA Response:

The humanitarian community is responding to the needs of evacuees with food and non-food items like blankets and hygiene kits. ELCA companion, LWF-Haiti assisted with the evacuation of displaced people residing in a camp in Nerette near Port-au-Prince. Their relief efforts will focus in the region of Grand’Anse with activities to provide immediate food, water and hygiene kits to 1,700 families and new roofing for 300 houses that suffered roofing loss during the storm. Recovery plans will focus on recovering the fishing sector which provides the means for livelihood to many families in the region.

The ELCA has made an immediate allocation of $50,000 to respond to the humanitarian needs in Grand’Anse and to commence the distribution of relief materials. An additional $25,000 commitment was made for efforts to respond to and mitigate the further spread of cholera.

What you can do:

Pray:

Please hold the people of Haiti in your prayers. Suggested prayer petitions from ELCA Worship. Include these prayers in your personal devotions and in your Congregation Prayers.

Study and Share:

In addition to what you find in the secular media, look at the following:

Give:

Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response help us to provide immediate and effective support to communities which are in need. Please consider giving to support the needs of this response and others like it. Information on giving is provided in the box on the right “How You Can Help.” 100% of your gift will be used in full to bring life sustaining support to this crisis. Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

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^{Photo Credits: (top right) Susan Barry/ACT Alliance, 10/2010
(middle left) DKH/ACT Alliance, 10/2010}