Hurricanes and Haiti

 

Dear Friends of Canaan 

The Lord has been so gracious to us here at Canaan . The hurricane
rained down over a foot of water, but as we are up on a hill, we have
had no major catastrophe. We found out how old all our roofs are and
had a lot of leakage, and there are branches down everywhere, but
praise God, no lives lost or injured. For us, it was a steady rain,
with wind gusts every so often. We will have a major expense repairing
the roofs – both the boys dorm and the girls dorm will need to be
changed, as well as most of the others. 
Sadly, our surrounding areas have not survived so well. The water from
the mountains brought down an unusual amount of water, flooding the
river and taking with it houses that were in it’s way, on several
occasions with the people in it. Even in areas not close to the river,
the water coming down from the hills was too much for the houses.
People have been coming to us steadily for help – they need money to
bury their dead, food, shelter, clothes, anything because everything
they have is gone. We’re trying to get together anything that we can.
We’ve started getting specific lists of houses, church buildings,
schools that are gone or broken or at risk. And this is just in
Montrouis area.  
Within one mile of us we have 36 houses gone. People are crowding their neighbour and friends’ houses. 
Beyond that, within a 5 mile radius, including Montrouis, we have tons
of houses gone. These are of course just the ones that have come to us
with their help requests or lists – I’m sure there’s many more. The
list of one suburb alone, Rousseau, says 21 houses (1-9 room buildings)
destroyed, 19 damaged (un-livable), at risk over 96 in total. The
school there is also damaged. Another suburb, Perrier, 17 destroyed, 19
damaged, at risk 45. We have the names of at least two churches that
are at risk. 50 hectars of cultivated fields are gone. A lot of animals
like cows, goats, etc, gone. Almost a 1000 fruit trees were washed
away. It made a big crevice so that the mountain people can’t come into
town. Part of Montrouis, people living on the sections going up the
mountains, had to go further up the mountains because of the crevice
dividing the two and of course that’s not home. 
Then the bridge just on our side of Montrouis: it’s on Highway one, the
main road going to all 5 northern Departments of Haiti, all of which
have 40 or more provinces. It now cuts all those off from Port au
Prince. The force of the waters eroded the ground under the pillar in
the water and sunk one side of it, resulting in the whole bridge now
tilting downwards in the middle. After the police left the first night,
a big truck dared cross further and sunk it even more. They of course
have barricaded the road now – the biggest thing on wheels to pass is a
wheelbarrow, and they’re being used a lot to haul all the produce into
Montrouis, the market being just on the other side. The buses and
taptaps drive till the bridge, and the people can walk over. Yesterday,
when we went to see, they had a Cat in the river, piling rocks and
graveltowards the middles to try to divert the water from the pillar.  
Thankfully we happened to have two of our vehicles on the Montrouis
side, so we are able to go into Port to get supplies. The problem with
that though, is that we don’t have our truck to haul stuff to people in
need. We are at a lost what to do with all the requests. Though we have
more than a lot of people, you can imagine with so many people here
cash flow is always limited. Maybe you have some suggestions on how to
help the needy??? Any help you can offer would be appreciated.
International relief seems to focus on Gonaives , where the disaster is
awful. I’m sure you know that as well as anyone, since that’s been on
the news so much. But there are also a lot of people in other areas,
with nothing!!!
May God protect us from the coming hurricanes and storms! With the
grounds so soaked, even a minor rain can cause further disaster.
Please continue to pray for us and Haiti . May the Lord bless you.
Pastor Henri, Sis. Gladys and the Cananaites

 

 

And from El Shaddai ministries:

Thank you very much for your prayers and the financial support that has been promised.  

MNA has also sent out an appeal and so you can also forward funds to:

MNA-Disaster Relief
1700 N. Brown Road, Ste 101
Lawrenceville, GA 30043
Memo: Haiti Flood Relief

The latest from  Haiti .  
Haiti airports are now closed due to the tropical storm warning. 
Hurricane Ike is expected to bring more rain to northern Haiti ; this
of course includes Gonaives .  Only one helicopter was able to leave
the DR before the warning was given.  But once it landed, there were
other issues with the government not wanting the food to be boarded. 
And then came the closure of the airport.  

Dony and DouDou got to Gonaives at about 3:00pm yesterday.  A rented
truck filled with water, followed them into the city. The people were
happy for the water but were also looking for food which we hope would
have come today.  Since the helicopters were being held up, the next
plan was to return to  Port-au-Prince , rent several trucks to drive
the food back to  Gonaives . But then the weather began to change.  So
he and DouDou used whatever funds they had and bought all the food they
could find in Gonaives , gave these to several church leaders along
with funds and began the journey back to the south.  

When asked how was the situation there, Dony’s response was to think of
the worst that you can, and then think Gonaives .  He was driving
through 2 feet of water in the city.  Some people were cleaning
whatever was remaining of their home and at the same time standing in
knee deep water.  As he returns to Les Cayes in the south, he has a
passenger.  He is a 12 year-old boy named Widly.  Widly was walking in
the streets all by himself.  When asked why, he said because he had
lost his family.  He took Dony and DouDou to what remained of his
home.  Widly says that he has other family in Lester and so they will
drive him there to find them.

Tuesday night as the rain came pouring down, a pregnant lady sought
refuge on the second floor with the 250 orphans.  There she gave birth
to her child.  Another 200 were in the medical clinic and are still
there as they have no where to go.  Meanwhile, yesterday in Les Cayes,
Louis was giving out food and funds to people in the community who had
lost everything.  Why give them funds if you give them the food such
as rice and beans?  Well, they now need to buy the charcoal to cook,
oil to cook, the pot to cook, etc.  

This effort cannot be done alone.  We are thankful for ministry
partners such as C3 Missions who are doing the food coordination at
this time and another partner who have opened there warehouse for us to
take food supply to the people in Gonaives .  However, due to the
change in weather and the expectations of more rain from Hurricane Ike,
Monday will be the return date to Gonaives . 

Have a blessed Lord’s day tomorrow.