"It sounded like 100 locomotives coming at us."
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That's how one eyewitness described what she heard as Hurricane Matthew raged over the island of Haiti. As electricity and power begin to be restored, more information and photos are starting to come through. You will see in the photos that the substantial concrete buildings generally did fairly well, except for their roofs. But there are many, many average Haitians, especially in rural southern Haiti, whose simple dwellings were completely obliterated by the winds or washed away by floodwaters.
This is especially true in the Les Cayes area (yesterday's email had an incorrect heading over the Les Cayes section.) This region bore the full brunt of the storm. Thankfully, our buildings on the Citi Lumiere compound are mostly undamaged, but the city looks like a war zone. A big concern now is disease from contaminated water, shortage of food supplies and homeless (or roofless) people exposed to the elements.
Below are aerial photos of southern Haiti, courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship, photographer Tim Schandorff.
At Hospital Lumiere in Bonne Fin, power is back up and water pumps are working. The staff is hard at work securing the property and prioritizing issues and needs. Some photos are below.
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