Apr 19, 2017
After the Storm
Picking Up the Pieces After Hurricane Matthew
By Crystal Wells, Roving Communications Officer
Hurricane Matthew made direct landfall on southwestern Haiti on October 4th as a Category 4 storm. An estimated 1.4 million people require humanitarian assistance, while tens of thousands remain homeless. Cholera cases have also surged, with more than 4,200 suspected cases in Sud and Grand’Anse, the two departments that suffered the brunt of the storm.
International Medical Corps has been on the ground in some of the areas hardest-hit by Hurricane Matthew since October 6th and today is running mobile medical units, treating cholera patients, providing clean water and sanitation, and distributing emergency supplies. Last month, International Medical Corps supported Haiti’s of Ministry of Health last month to roll out a large-scale oral cholera vaccination campaign in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.
Here are some of the stories of people touched by our programs who are working to pick up the pieces from this deadly storm.
Marie
Marie, 56, did not expect the hurricane to be so powerful. As the storm rolled in, she gathered her children and huddled inside the home where she lived for the past 16 years in Rendel, a town nestled high in Haiti’s mountains.
Then the winds picked up.
A tree came crashing down on top of her house, smashing through the wall and roof and landing on a bed where her children used to sleep. Marie ran with her children to a neighboring house to wait out the storm. When they emerged the next morning, Marie saw everything they owned was completed destroyed.
“I didn’t save anything,” Marie said. “I couldn’t save it.”
Then another disaster unfolded on Rendel — cholera. The disease was already in Rendel before Hurricane Matthew, but the storm ignited a surge in cases.
“After the hurricane, people kept dying of cholera,” she said. “It is our biggest problem.”
Because Rendel is so isolated, cholera was particularly deadly. Thousands left the town, fearing they would be next.
International Medical Corps is now running a mobile medical unit to Rendel weekly — a trek that takes the team roughly four hours to make. The area is also part of a massive oral cholera vaccination campaign that is being run by the Haitian Ministry of Health, with support from International Medical Corps.
Marie is one of the people hired by the Ministry of Health to help administer doses of oral cholera vaccines to the people of Rendel. The job will give her much-needed income, while she hopes the vaccines will help keep people safe from cholera. Her brother is helping her repair the roof of her home, but it will be a long time before she is able to live in it again.
“I have lived in Rendel my whole life,” she said. “This was our worst disaster.”
Luvienne
Luvienne, 20, was in her home in Tiburon, a commune in southwestern Haiti, when Hurricane Matthew barreled through. The winds toppled over a large mango tree on top of her home, injuring her father.
She, along with two children and other members of her family, have been living in a tent ever since. It wasn’t until two weeks after Hurricane Matthew that she says people started to get sick. Hurricane Matthew caused a lot of flooding in Tiburon, creating fertile ground for the disease to spread. When asked to describe the situation in Tiburon, she said,
“Trouble, trouble. Lots of people are getting cholera there.”
She was one of them.
“When I first started to feel sick it was only a stomach ache,” she said. “Then I had diarrhea. People said I might have cholera.”
Luvienne traveled to the nearest health facility, which referred her by ambulance to International Medical Corps’ cholera treatment unit (CTU) in Les Anglais, a town some two hours’ away by car. When she was admitted into the CTU, Luvienne was taken into tent C, where the most severe cases are cared for. Just 24 hours later, her symptoms subsiding, Luvienne was moved to tent B, where moderate cases are monitored.
Dr. Vital Ervens-Stive, one of International Medical Corps’ doctors in the CTU, said he was confident she would be discharged in the coming days.
“They have taken good care of me,” said Luvienne. “I hope to get a little business together when I get home so I can take care of my children.”
Junas
Before Hurricane Matthew, Junas raised goats and would sell them any time he and his family needed money.
“If I was hungry or had a problem I could sell my goats for 200 or 300 Haitian dollars,” he said.
That all changed after Hurricane Matthew tore through his community, Fond de Blancs, tucked into the hills of southwestern Haiti. All of Junas’ goats died in the storm, leaving him with nothing to sell to support himself, his daughter, sister, and mother. The rain and wind also tore down their family home. A pile of white rocks now marks where the house once stood.
Then cholera crept in, sickening at least five people in the area, according to Junas.
Fonds de Blancs was one of the areas reached by a large-scale oral cholera vaccination campaign, organized by Haiti’s Ministry of Health with support from International Medical Corps. Junas was among the first to receive a dose of oral cholera vaccine.
“[I took the vaccine] because I want to avoid having cholera,” he said. “I think the vaccine is a good thing. It helps us avoid disease.”
While he feels more protected from cholera because of the vaccine, Junas is still unsure how he will rebuild his house after Hurricane Matthew robbed him of his livelihood.
“If we have a house, we will do whatever we need to eat.”
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