LesCayes update from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-matthew-resident-of-les-cayes-in-haiti-everything-is-gone/ 4:21 PM 10/6/2016 Resident of Les Cayes in Haiti: “It’s like a bulldozer just passed by” Comment Share Tweet Stumble Email Last Updated Oct 4, 2016 9:56 PM EDT PETIT-GOAVE, Haiti -- Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti’s southwestern tip with howling, 145 mph winds Tuesday, tearing off roofs in the poor and largely rural area, uprooting trees and leaving rivers bloated and choked with debris. At least 11 deaths were blamed on the storm during its week-long march across the Caribbean. Forecasters said around 8 p.m. EST the eye of Hurricane Matthew has made landfall near the eastern tip of Cuba. The easternmost points in Cuba’s easternmost province Guantanamo are still getting assaulted by hurricane force winds and rain, reported CBS News’ Portia Siegelbaum from Havana. Baracoa is facing the most difficult situation because of its antiquated drainage system and rivers that are overflowing adding to the flooding from high waves and storm surge. Earlier in the day, wind gusts ripped off the roof of a small tourist hotel, “La Rusa,” located right on the coast in Baracoa. A resident of Baracoa, Barbaro Abad, spoke via cell phone to Cuban TV. Abad called the situation “very difficult.” Houses next door and behind him have collapsed. He said he can hear the wind and rain pounding on the roof and walls of his home, making them tremble. ----- Hurricane Matthew rips through Haiti Play VIDEO ----- Hurricane Matthew rips through Haiti Hurricane Matthew swept away the coastal town of Les Cayes in Haiti. Resident George Elie told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann that it was devastating. “Whole houses. Everything is gone.... It’s like a bulldozer just passed by... I can tell you it’s a big disaster...” he said. ... The dangerous Category 4 storm -- at one point the most powerful hurricane in the region in nearly a decade -- blew ashore around dawn in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, hitting a corner of Haiti where many people live in shacks of wood or concrete blocks. ... ----- What made Hurricane Matthew so strong? ----- Damage in the hardest-hit part of Haiti appeared to be widespread, but because of spotty communications, blocked roads and washed-out bridges, the full extent was not immediately clear. Nor was the number of deaths. The country’s Civil Protection Agency said many homes were damaged or destroyed. “It’s the worst hurricane that I’ve seen during my life,” said Fidele Nicolas, a civil protection official in Nippes, just east of where Matthew came ashore. “It destroyed schools, roads, other structures.” At least three deaths were blamed on the storm in Haiti, including one person whose home was crushed by a tree in Port Salut and a 26-year-old man who drowned trying to rescue a child who had fallen into a rushing river, authorities said. The child was saved. ... The storm left the peninsula that runs along the southern coast of Haiti cut off from the rest of the country. Many streets were impassable because of flooding, landslides or fallen trees. Local radio reported that the water was shoulder high in parts of the city of Les Cayes. This storm piles another calamity on Haiti, the western hemisphere’s poorest country. Six years ago, a devastating earthquake killed more than 200,000 people, Strassmann reported. “Things were progressing, being rebuilt but it was fragile at best,” American aid worker Aaron Dankers told CBS News. “So something like this comes through and completely destroys all the progress that’s been made.” ----- Hurricane Matthew ----- Milriste Nelson, a 65-year-old farmer in the town of Leogane, said his neighbors fled when the wind ripped the corrugated metal roof from their home. His own small yard was strewn with the fruit he depends on for his livelihood. “All the banana trees, all the mangos, everything is gone,” Nelson said as he boiled breadfruit over a charcoal fire in the gray morning light. “This country is going to fall deeper into misery.” Haitian authorities had tried to evacuate people from the most vulnerable areas ahead of the storm, but many were reluctant to leave their homes. Some sought shelter only after the worst was already upon them. “Many people are now asking for help, but it’s too late because there is no way to go evacuate them,” said Fonie Pierre, director of Catholic Relief Services for the Les Cayes area, who was huddled in her office with about 20 people. United Nations official says Hurricane Matthew has caused the biggest humanitarian crisis in Haiti since the devastating earthquake of 2010. Deputy Special Representative for Haiti Mourad Wahba says in a statement that many people have been forced from their homes and communications systems have been knocked out in the country’s hard-hit southwestern peninsula. He says at least 10,000 people are in shelters. Wahba says officials have received reports of destroyed houses and overflowing hospitals, with shortages fresh water. He also says the hospital in the city of Les Cayes had its roof blown off. Matthew was expected to bring 15 to 25 inches of rain, and up to 40 inches in isolated places, along with up to 10 feet of storm surge and battering waves. “They are getting everything a major hurricane can throw at them,” said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Matthew briefly reached the top classification, Category 5, as it moved across the Caribbean late last week, becoming the strongest hurricane in the region since Felix in 2007. As of 5 p.m. EDT, the storm was centered about 30 miles southwest of the eastern tip of Cuba. It was moving north at close to 9 mph. Its sustained winds were down slightly to 140 mph. The center was projected to pass about 50 miles northeast of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hours before the hurricane’s expected arrival, a light rain fell on Cuba’s easternmost city, Baracoa, and the wind began whipping the palm trees. Authorities moved residents from the three blocks closest to the sea, and about 100 tourists were moved to a hotel in central Baracoa, where windows were covered with sheet metal and wood. The flooded neighborhood of La Puya, in Santo Domingo on October 4, 2016 after the passage of Hurricane Matthew through Hispaniola -- the island that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti. ... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-matthew-resident-of-les-cayes-in-haiti-everything-is-gone/ 7:24 PM 10/6/2016 Haiti - FLASH : Blackout on Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes flooded 04/10/2016 10:34:38 Haiti - FLASH : Blackout on Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes flooded Situation of Matthew hurricane at 10am Currently the center of Hurricane Matthew is located in the Gulf of Gonâve, 37km North-East of Jeremiah, 105km West of the Island of Gonâve, 211km West of Port-au-Prince and 135km South East of mole St. Nicolas. Matthew is moving north at 17 km/h, and this general motion is expected to continue today. On this track the eye of Matthew will move over the Windward Passage and eastern Cuba today. A turn toward the north-northwest is expected by Wednesday, followed by a northwest turn Wednesday night. Matthew is expected to move near or over portions of the southeastern and central Bahamas tonight and Wednesday, and approach the northwestern Bahamas Wednesday night. During the day after crossing the South and Grand'Anse departments, Matthew will continue its way north and affect the Nippes, West, Artibonite and Northwest in particular. Maximum sustained winds remain near 145 mph (230 km/h) with higher gusts. Some fluctuations in intensity are possible during the next couple of days, but Matthew is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through at least Wednesday night. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 miles (295 km). Electricity According to General Director of EDH, 28 circuits have tripped over 40. No circuitry is powered for Port-au-Prince at the moment. EDH engines are stopped in the South because of the passage of Matthew. Detainees The Director General of the PNH Michel-Ange Gédéon went to the control room where sit the General Staff of Management pof the Hurricane Matthew. He took the opportunity to share with the senior executives of the police institution the latest information on the hurricane and provisions to evacuate voluntarily or by force citizens living in very vulnerable areas and relocating detainees found in prisons at risk. Monday 42 prisoners moved from the police station of Miragoâne to that of Fond-des-Nègres. 102 prisoners (elderly, children) of Les Cayes transferred to a shelter, to the police. 323 from Mackandal, Jérémie, to the police station of La Source ; 60 prisoners of Aquin toward Port-au-Prince. Communication Digicel informed that communications are increasingly difficult in the Grand Anse and the South. The teams are waiting to restore service as soon as the winds allow it. Actions The CompanyVorbe et fils informs that it will put all its equipment available to the country, the deployment will be done in coordination with the Ministry of Public Works, Transport, Energy and Communications. Situation At the Carrefour sea level rose has begun to invade places. At Port-au-Prince, strong gusts of wind and rain are felt. On the road of Bourdon a high voltage cable is broken, avoid area. The city of Les Cayes in under a major flood. Nearby locations of Damien are being flooded. Floods and landslides were reported in Jérémie and Les Cayes. In Croix-des-Bouquets near the Police Station the water level rose and flooded the street. Strong wind at Peguyville. HL/ HaitiLibre http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18816-haiti-flash-blackout-on-port-au-prince-les-cayes-flooded.html ===== 7:48 PM 10/6/2016 Haiti - Politic : Privert overflight the Great South 06/10/2016 08:19:01 Haiti - Politic : Privert overflight the Great South Wednesday early in the day as part of government efforts to take stock of the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew, in order to develop appropriate responses to affected families, the de facto President Jocelerme Privert, accompanied by the US Ambassador, Peter Mulrean and Mrs. Alta Jean-Baptiste Director of Civil Protection, left Port-au-Prince aboard a plane to the US Coast Guard for a Great South overflight to get an idea of the situation. He was able to see the extent of damage caused by Matthew. The situation of the main cities overflown : Jérémie, Les Cayes, Port-Salut, Petite-Rivière de Nippes, Dame Marie, among other is catastrophic and require emergency interventions. Privert extremely concerned about the impact on the population, said he was determined to do everything possible, at the Government together with the friends of Haiti, to provide practical solutions and emergency disaster relief. Thereafter Privert, accompanied by the Prime Minister, Jean-Charles, chaired a special Council of Ministers to decide on the best responses to the affected families in the affected areas. The Council of Ministers has allowed the Head of State and members of the Government to reflect on the good management post Matthew period. The Government took the opportunity to address the issue of the difficult delivery of aid, due to terrestrial means of communication, which in some places is almost impossible. To this end, helicopters are expected this Thursday to identify landing zones. http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-18837-haiti-politic-privert-overflight-the-great-south.html [15 min video surveying damage.] HAITI 10.05.2016 Video by Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric Woodall U.S. Coast Guard District 7 Subscribe 16 A Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crew conducts the first post-storm damage assessment flights over Haiti following Hurricane Matthew on October 5, 2016. The Ocean Sentry crew reported heavy coastal flooding and significant damage to infrastructure in southern Haiti as well as damage to highways, structures and houses along the northern region of Haiti and the south side of Isle De La Tortue. (Coast Guard video) https://www.dvidshub.net/video/486466/coast-guard-air-station-miami-hc-144-ocean-sentry-airplane-crew-conducts-first-post-storm-damage-assessment-flights Date Taken: 10.05.2016 Date Posted: 10.06.2016 15:00 Category: B-Roll Video ID: 486466 VIRIN: 161005-G-GY119-001 Filename: DOD_103730725 Length: 00:14:43 Location: HT Web Views: 8,816 Downloads: 45 High-Res. Downloads: 45 Podcast Hits: 0 PUBLIC DOMAIN This work, A Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry Airplane Crew Conducts the First Post-Storm Damage Assessment Flights Over Haiti following Hurricane Matthew on October 5, 2016., by PO3 Eric Woodall, identified by DVIDS, is free of known copyright restrictions under U.S. copyright law. ===== 8:08 PM 10/6/2016 Bill Nemitz: In Haiti, shelter needed from yet another storm Hurricane Matthew ravages an orphanage founded by the Rev. Marc Boisvert, a Lewiston native. BY BILL NEMITZ COLUMNIST bnemitz@pressherald.com | @BillNemitz Share facebook tweet email print print Comment Although Hurricane Matthew spared the children at Pwoje Espwa Sud, it left the Haitian orphanage and surrounding areas in shambles and needing relief that Mainers could help provide. Although Hurricane Matthew spared the children at Pwoje Espwa Sud, it left the Haitian orphanage and surrounding areas in shambles and needing relief that Mainers could help provide. Courtesy of Pwoje Espwa Not Haiti. Not again. “Good Lord, as if we don’t have enough to deal with,” the Rev. Marc Boisvert, a native of Lewiston, said in a telephone interview Thursday morning. “Then this thing happens.” The Rev. Marc Boisvert says that at Pwoje Espwa Sud, The Rev. Marc Boisvert says that at Pwoje Espwa Sud, "there will be no school for the foreseeable future." RELATED HEADLINES Haitian death toll climbs past 100 amid devastation of Hurricane Matthew photo-store Search photos available for purchase: Photo Store → He meant Hurricane Matthew, which on Wednesday hammered the city of Les Cayes on the southern peninsula of Haiti. Ten miles outside Les Cayes sits Pwoje Espwa Sud, Creole for “Project Hope South.” An orphanage founded by Boisvert in 1998, it’s long been heaven on earth to 350 Haitian children rescued from life on the streets in the Western Hemisphere’s most impoverished nation. No longer. Packing winds of 145 mph and rain measured in feet rather than inches, the center of the hurricane passed directly over them. “No one was hurt, which was a miracle in itself,” Boisvert said. But the damage is catastrophic. Pwoje Espwa last made headlines in the Portland Press Herald back in 2010, when the treasure-salvage ship Sea Hunter sailed there from Portland laden with donated items from Maine. Haiti had just been hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake, centered 100 miles east of Les Cayes. Damage to the city was minimal, but tens of thousands of Haitians had migrated there from the devastated capital of Port au Prince. The “human tsunami,” as Boisvert called it, left the orphanage and surrounding area desperate for the 200 tons of food, clothing and medical supplies transported all the way from Portland Harbor by the Sea Hunter’s determined crew and volunteers. I went along for that ride and spent a memorable two days at the orphanage. Known locally as Villaj Espwa, or “Hope Village,” the impeccably maintained, 125-acre campus boasted close to two dozen small dormitories, three schools, small vegetable gardens – all lit up by the smiles and laughter of kids reveling in what little they had. Boisvert, a Roman Catholic priest who began his ministry in Maine, established the orphanage after serving as a chaplain for the military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A French speaker, he often provided translation for Haitian refugees after they’d been plucked from their sinking boats or rafts by the U.S. Coast Guard and dropped off at Guantanamo. The refugees’ horror stories prompted Boisvert to travel to Haiti in 1997 to witness firsthand the abject poverty, widespread disease and, worst of all, children left by fate to fend for themselves. He wondered: Could life in Haiti really be as bad as they described? In fact, it was worse. Transformed by the experience, Boisvert sold everything he had, created Pwoje Espwa and never looked back. “This is God’s work,” he told me back in 2010. “This is what God wants me to do.” Boisvert is in Florida now on the tail end of a months-long fundraising trip that included a visit to Maine at the end of August. He’s scheduled to return to the orphanage for the winter later this month. Thursday morning, after watching helplessly from afar as the Category 4 hurricane’s eye passed directly over Les Cayes, Boisvert made brief telephone contact with the orphanage’s assistant director. As the storm approached, the staff moved all the boys, along with their mattresses and whatever else they could carry, from their metal-roofed houses to the sturdier, two-story primary school. There the children stayed, huddled safely behind the thick walls and plywood-covered windows while the lethal debris flew around outside. The hurricane tore the roofs off all 16 of the male housing units. The girls’ dorms, all domed structures, remain intact. “The boys’ housing is gone. The secondary school is gone,” Boisvert said. “The kids are now living in the primary school, which means there will be no school for the foreseeable future.” That’s a big deal. In addition to the orphanage population, Pwoje Espwa provides schooling for 1,300 children throughout the region. Until now. But schooling can wait. Right now, it’s a matter of basic survival. Fortunately for the children, a shipment of fortified rice packets arrived just over a week ago. So they’ll be fed, at least for the time being. The orphanage’s neighbors, including 200 people who took refuge just before the hurricane in the orphanage’s preschool building, pose a much bigger challenge. Virtually everyone lost their gardens and their livestock, Boisvert said, and in the past 24 hours the crowd squeezed into the preschool already had swelled to about 400. Many more will follow as hunger deepens, forcing the orphanage staff to strike a delicate balance between the kids’ needs and those of the surrounding community. “The problem is if we don’t give out any food, we could have a riot on our hands,” Boisvert said. “People are desperate.” As for rebuilding, where to begin? A collapsed bridge on the lone route to Port au Prince has left much of Haiti’s southwestern peninsula inaccessible by land. Even the road from Pwoje Espwa to nearby Les Cayes is impassible. So, as always, Boisvert and his fellow lifesavers make do with what they have. Starting with nine metal shipping containers, which made their way from the Sea Hunter to the orphanage – via small fishing boats and ramshackle trucks – in the final stages of the 2010 relief operation. “We were thinking about building something with them,” Boisvert said. “I think at this point they’re probably going to be used for housing some people.” There will be no mercy ship from Maine this time around. Still, Boisvert hopes and prays that his home state’s generosity once again will flow south. Care to donate? Go to www.freethekids.org, the website for Pwoje Espwa’s fundraising arm in the United States, and click on the hurricane relief link. And if you’re wondering what difference it will make, consider that only a week ago, Pwoje Espwa welcomed in 40 new kids. All are under the age of 6. Boisvert will get back there one way or another. But while most of the East Coast breathes a sigh of relief that Matthew won’t come anywhere near us after all, the good father can only pray and anxiously await the next call from his sleep-deprived assistant director. “I could feel the crushing sadness in his voice as he had a chance to walk around the campus and see the damage that was done,” Boisvert said. “It’s disheartening, you know?” We can only imagine. http://www.pressherald.com/2016/10/06/bill-nemitz-shelter-needed-from-yet-another-storm/ [A Catholic mission/orphanage/school begun in 2010.] ===== 9:59 PM 10/6/2016 LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — Haiti's death toll jumped late Thursday after rescue crews began reaching remote corners cut off when Hurricane Matthew slammed into the country's southwest peninsula, the first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in more than a half century. At least 283 people died in just one part of Haiti's southwest, the region that bore the brunt of the storm, Emmanuel Pierre, an Interior Ministry coordinator in Les Cayes, told The Associated Press. The overall death toll in Haiti is not clear. Shortly before Pierre spoke, the headquarters for Haiti's Civil Protection Agency had put the number of confirmed deaths for the whole country at 122. Authorities expect the number of deaths to rise, with mayors and other local officials in marooned areas reporting higher numbers. Most deaths are thought to have occurred in the southwest region. Bodies started to appear as waters receded in some places two days after Matthew's 145 mph (235 kph) winds smashed concrete walls, flattened palm trees and tore roofs off homes, forcing thousands of Haitians to flee. Those killed in Haiti included a woman and her 6-year-old daughter who frantically abandoned their flimsy home and headed to a nearby church to seek shelter as Matthew surged in early Tuesday, said Ernst Ais, mayor of the town of Cavaillon. "On the way to the church, the wind took them," Ais told The Associated Press. At least 12 people died in his town, and Ais said he expected the number to increase. Officials were especially concerned about the department of Grand-Anse on the northern tip of the peninsula, where they believe the death toll and damage is highest. The 283 deaths reported late Thursday did not include Grand-Anse or other nearby areas. "Devastation is everywhere," said Pilus Enor, mayor of the town of Camp Perrin. "Every house has lost its roof. All the plantations have been destroyed. ...This is the first time we see something like this." People faced an immediate hunger crisis in Grand-Anse's largest city of Jeremie, said Maarten Boute, chairman of telecom Digicel Haiti, who flew there in a helicopter. In the nearby seaport of Les Cayes, many people searched for clean water as they lugged mattresses and other belongings they were able to salvage. "Nothing is going well," said Jardine Laguerre, a teacher. "The water took what little money we had. We are hungry." Authorities and aid workers were just beginning to get a clear picture of what they fear is the country's biggest disaster in years. Interior Minister Francois Anick Joseph said food and water were urgently needed, noting that crops had been leveled, wells inundated by seawater and some water treatment facilities destroyed. Officials with the Pan American Health Organization warned Thursday about a possible surge in cholera cases because of the widespread flooding caused by Matthew. Haiti's cholera outbreak has killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010, when it was introduced into the country's biggest river from a U.N. base where Nepalese peacekeepers were deployed. Before hitting Haiti, the storm was blamed for four deaths in the Dominican Republic, one in Colombia and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Haiti's government has estimated at least 350,000 people need some kind of assistance. International aid groups are already appealing for donations for a lengthy recovery effort in Haiti, the hemisphere's least-developed and most aid-dependent nation. When Category 4 Hurricane Flora hit Haiti in 1963, it killed as many as 8,000 people. In the coming days, U.S. military personnel equipped with nine helicopters were expected to help deliver food and water to hard-hit areas. While recovery efforts continued in Haiti, Matthew pummeled the Bahamas on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the capital of Nassau, but the storm ripped off roofs, uprooted trees and caused flooding that trapped some people in their homes. Authorities urged people to stay indoors while they conducted search and rescue operations. "This is the most intense hurricane I have ever been through," a Nassau resident, 43-year-old Jose Ageeb, said in a message to the AP. "And I have been through many." He rode out the storm with his family, including his 73-year-old mother, as he posted a video on Facebook of winds peeling off a nearby roof. "I am completely terrified," he wrote, adding that his home was almost intact except for floors being covered in water. In Cuba, Matthew blew across that island's sparsely populated eastern tip Tuesday night, destroying dozens of homes and damaging hundreds in the island's easternmost city, Baracoa. But the government oversaw the evacuation of nearly 380,000 people and strong measures were taken to protect communities and infrastructure, U.N. officials said. Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/world/haiti-starting-to-gauge-full-damage-from-matthews-rampage/453964848 =====