Roj Bash Kurdistan

Hurricane Matthew: Struggle to reach worst-hit parts of Haiti as Florida braces for storm's arrival

Rescue workers in Haiti are struggling to reach parts of the country cut off by the most powerful Caribbean hurricane in nearly a decade.

The destruction wrought by Hurricane Matthew has forced Haiti's presidential election this weekend to be postponed, officials say.

Thousands have been displaced and at least five people have been died.

The US states of Florida and South Carolina are bracing for the storm, which is nearing the Bahamas.

All air and sea traffic has been halted on the islands and people have been urged to move to higher ground.

Matthew battered a remote area of Haiti - one of the world's poorest countries, with many residents living in flimsy housing in flood-prone areas - with winds of up to 230km/h (145mph) on Tuesday.

Officials said they were not yet in a position to gauge the true extent of the damage - particularly in the Grand Anse area on the southern tip of the island, which was directly in the storm's path.

A key bridge has been destroyed, roads are impassable and phone communications are down, officials said.

We only began to see the real destructive force of Hurricane Matthew once we moved towards the south-west of the country.

Trees fallen, banana crops uprooted and flattened, houses under water and men and women trying to get the debris out of the way.

It was noticeable how the people we passed were coping alone. There were no army or police around to help. Even the aid agencies are struggling to move around this damaged corner of the country.

Mourad Wahba, the UN special representative for Haiti, said at least 10,000 people were in shelters and hospitals were overflowing.

"What we know is that many, many houses have been damaged," Interior Minister Francois Anick Joseph said. "Some lost rooftops and they'll have to be replaced, while others were totally destroyed."

Among the damaged buildings were schools and churches due to be used as polling stations in Haiti's election. A new date for the much-delayed vote has not yet been announced.
Flight from Florida

At least 11 people are believed to have been killed by Hurricane Matthew so far, including four killed by collapsing walls and mudslides in the Dominican Republic.

In Cuba, dozens of homes in the eastern city of Baracoa were destroyed.

In the US, President Barack Obama warned that the coming days would be dangerous and urged Americans to heed official advice.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said his state could be facing its biggest evacuation ever.

South Carolina's Governor Nikki Haley said 250,000 people would be evacuated from coastal areas.

Matthew is the region's most powerful hurricane since Felix in 2007.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-37570409

It would be good if instead of spending a fortune on destroying countries and killing people - money were spent on saving people and helping those who suffer from natural disasters

Hurricane Matthew: Hundreds dead in Haiti storm disaster

The death toll in Haiti as a result of Hurricane Matthew - the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade - has soared to more than 400, officials say.

Some 50 people were reported killed in the town of Roche-a-Bateau alone

The nearby city of Jeremie saw 80% of its buildings levelled. In Sud province 30,000 homes were destroyed.

Category Three Matthew, with sustained winds of 120mph (193km/h), is heading up the coastline of the US state of Florida but has not made landfall.

It remains unclear whether it will do so.

At 08:00 local time (12:00 GMT) Matthew was off the Florida coast, about 45 miles east of Daytona Beach and moving north-west at about 13mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

Senator Herve Fourcand from southern Haiti told AFP news agency that at least 400 people had died. Reuters news agency put the death toll at 478, quoting Haitian officials, but this has not been independently confirmed.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-37582009

I think that more money should be spent on those who suffer from natural disasters and NONE at all spent on bombs and destruction

Man makes the war = man makes bombs = man destroys and kills = man deserves to suffer

Natural disasters = innocent people die

Money should be spent helping those suffering from natural disasters rather than man-made conflicts

No weapons = no fighting = no dying = stop supplying rebels with weapons

If governments are deemed to be corrupt and civil unrest occur as a result of the suspected corruption - then institutions such as the UN - should send in peace-keeping forces - other countries do not have the right to fund rebels and supply them with arms making such conflicts worse even worse

Hurricane Matthew: Haiti dead reach 800 as south awaits aid

The UN has warned it could take days for the full impact of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti to emerge, as the death toll soars to more than 800 dead.

The death toll has doubled, and may rise, as rescue teams gain access to southern areas cut off by the storm.

The World Food Programme's Carlos Veloso says some of the hard-hit towns can only be reached by air or sea.

Many of the deaths in Haiti were in the south-western coast, which suffered the full force of the hurricane this week.

Category Three Matthew, with sustained winds of 120mph (193km/h), is currently battering the coastline of the US state of Florida but it is not yet clear if it will make landfall.

At 11:00 local time (15:00 GMT) Matthew was hugging the Florida coast, about 35 miles east of Daytona Beach and moving north-west at about 13mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

Rescue efforts are under way to assess the destruction left in the wake of the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade.

Haiti's Civil Protection Agency on Friday doubled the death toll from the hurricane from 400 to more than 800.

A definitive number is taking time to obtain because of the intensity of the damage to remote areas that are inaccessible because of flood water.

At least one major town in the south - Jeremie - has been 80% destroyed, with aerial footage showing the scale of destruction with hundreds of flattened houses.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-37588752

Over 870 killed, 350,000 in need of urgent aid in hurricane-stricken Haiti

The number of victims of Hurricane Matthew, which has wrought havoc in Haiti, neared 900 on Friday as reports from hard-to-access remote southwestern areas continued coming. A total of 350,000 Haitians require immediate assistance, the UN says.

The death toll from the Category 4 hurricane, which has shaken the Caribbean nation, has been climbing with scores of people still missing.

As of Friday, 870 people were reported killed in the calamity, Reuters reported, citing local officials.

The hurricane descended on southwest Haiti on Tuesday, with howling winds measuring 233 kilometers per hour (145 mph), bringing overwhelming floods, rooting out trees and demolishing houses as it swept through the country. At least 61,500 people have found temporary home in shelters, mainly the residents of coastal villages deluged by water. According to UNICEF, 80 percent of homes in the southern Haiti have been damaged.

While Haiti is reeling from the tragedy, medical officials fear an outbreak of cholera, with the first seven cases attributed to water contamination with sewage already registered. In 2010, when Haiti was stricken by a devastating earthquake that killed some 90,000 people and almost leveled the capital, Port-au-Prince, to the ground, an ensuing cholera outbreak killed over 9,000 people in Haiti alone, and spread to neighboring countries.

The western end of the Tiburon peninsula was first on the hurricane’s trail of destruction, having suffered the most.

The city of Jeremie, located in the Grand'Anse department also on Tiburon, was almost reduced to rubble, as 80 percent of the buildings in the city have been severely damaged or ripped apart by the storm.

"We have big problems here. And what I mean is that there are almost no houses left standing. Luckily we didn’t have the loss of lives, but we lost everything. Look, this was my small business that I completely lost. Everything is destroyed by rain,” Medelin Dorvil, a local resident, told RT’s video agency Ruptly.

“We don’t have food, or a hospital to get healthcare. I urge you to go visit the communal hospital, because we need medicines and doctors and other aid," he said.

In the town of Chantal, 86 people fell victim to the natural disaster and another 20 are unaccounted for, Reuters cited the local mayor as saying.

With Haiti’s water supply and power system severely damaged, many areas are experiencing a shortage of fresh water and food. As result, some 350,000 people are in need of immediate help, according to the UN’s assessment.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) plans to dispatch 7.5 million pounds of food supplies for families left homeless by the storm. The organization forecast that farmers in heavily-stricken rural areas have lost some 80 percent of their crops, which makes the recovery for Haiti ever more challenging.

Haiti’s neighbor states have responded to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti by sending cargos with humanitarian aid. On Friday, Venezuela transferred 660 tons in supplies, including food, medicine, blankets as well as heavy machinery to help clear off the roads from debris, Nestor Reverol, Venezuela’s Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace, told El Universal.

Mexico has also announced it is going to provide humanitarian aid to Haiti on Friday.

At the request of Haitian authorities, the European Union has allocated 255,000 euros intended to support the most severely affected victims of the hurricane.

Washington has started deploying troops to the island state, which are supposed to aid the relief efforts in coordination with USAID.

“At the end of the day, we should have [about] 250 personnel,” said Navy Rear Adm. Cedric Pringle, appointed commander of US Southern Command’s Joint Task Force Matthew on Friday, adding that the number of the servicemen will rise to 350.

After ramming through Haiti, the hurricane reached the US coast on Friday, knocking down trees and power lines in Florida. While the hurricane was downgraded to a level 2 on Friday, it still caused severe floods and power shutdown for more than 1 million Floridians, according to Governor Rick Scott.

At least one person died in the state due to the storm. A woman who was riding out the storm in a camper trailer died "when a tree fell due to high winds," Putnam County officials said in a statement.

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Hurricane Matthew: Haiti south '90% destroyed'

Nearly 900 people are known to have been killed by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, with aid officials saying up to 90% of some areas have been destroyed.

Some of the hardest-hit towns are yet to be reached by land, and there are fears more bodies will be found.

Parts of Haiti's south had faced "complete destruction", aid workers told the BBC.

Hurricane Matthew has now made landfall in South Carolina in the US, having battered Florida on Friday.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has downgraded it to a Category One hurricane, with maximum sustained winds having decreased to 75mph (120km/h).

But the NHC warned of a "serious inland flooding event unfolding".

Rescue efforts are under way in Haiti to assess the destruction left in the wake of the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade.

At least 877 people were confirmed dead late on Friday, local officials told Reuters news agency.

One of the survivors in the village of Chantal told Reuters a tree had flattened his house.

"The entire house fell on us. I couldn't get out," Jean-Pierre Jean-Donald said.

"People came to lift the rubble, and then we saw my wife, who had died."

The storm passed directly through the Tiburon peninsula - encompassing Haiti's entire southern coast - driving the sea inland and flattening homes with winds of up to 230km/h (145mph) and torrential rain.

The main road connecting the capital, Port-au-Prince, to the southern coast has been destroyed.

Kate Corrigan, a nurse working with charity Innovating Health International in Port-au-Prince, told the BBC some small towns were almost inaccessible.

"What we've seen thus far has been a fairly large-spread destruction in the south, potentially at points of 90% destruction in some of locations - complete destruction."

Her team's helicopter had not managed to land in some of the damaged areas.

Government and UN officials estimate that some 350,000 people need help.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say communication with the areas worst affected has been hampered by downed power lines and a lack of phone coverage.

The US is sending the naval vessel USS Mesa Verde to assist with rescue efforts, as well as nine military helicopters to help deliver food and water to the hardest-hit areas.

The Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal for $6.9m (£5.6m) "to provide medical, shelter, water and sanitation assistance to 50,000 people".

This comes amid concerns about a surge in cholera cases, with the sanitation system in Haiti already overwhelmed.

Haiti - one of the world's poorest countries - has never fully recovered from the earthquake in 2010 that killed thousands of people and a cholera epidemic that followed.

After slicing through Haiti and Cuba, Hurricane Matthew pounded the Bahamas on Thursday but no fatalities were reported there. Four people were killed in Florida as the storm hit on Friday.

More than a million homes have lost power.

Four people died in the neighbouring Dominican Republic on Tuesday.



US President Barack Obama on Friday warned that, while southern Florida had been spared the worst, the hurricane remained very dangerous, with the risk of a storm surge and flooding.

A state of emergency is in place in several states and at least three million inhabitants have been ordered to evacuate their homes.

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Cholera, mass graves: Haiti death toll reaches 1,000 in grim Hurricane Matthew aftermath

Haitian authorities have resorted to burying the dead in mass graves in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Matthew, which has killed at least 1,000 people on the island, Reuters reports. Cholera outbreaks have contributed to the dire situation.

The small Caribbean nation, which shares an island with Dominican Republic, has been struggling to deal with the aftermath of the powerful storm that uprooted trees and destroyed houses. Hundreds of people were killed in structure collapse and flooding, with winds blowing at up to 230 kilometers per hour (140 miles per hour).

It emerged that at least 13 people have died in an outbreak of cholera in the aftermath of the disaster.

Haitian authorities have announced a three-day period of mourning amid emergency work trying to contain the damage.

Link to Video:

https://www.rt.com/news/362130-haiti-ch ... ss-graves/