A couple of weeks ago, I asked Pastor Pierre to trim the trees that were at the front of the house. They grow quickly and were starting to grow among the electricity wires. It was a good thing they were trimmed because suddenly on Friday afternoon, out of nowhere a bad storm came with high winds and rain.
The winds were the worst I have experienced in my 14 years in Haiti. It felt like being in the middle of a hurricane. Everyone was outside and we called the children to stand under the carport and stay away from the open areas and the trees in the yard. With the wind gusting it was raining horizontally. We were worried about the refuge camps and when the winds died down we headed out in the rain to check on the camps that were near us.
The winds ripped tents apart everywhere. They aren't built to withstand strong winds like what happened Friday afternoon and with the months standing under the hot sun they also were brittle. Thousands of tents were destroyed.
Trees, branches and tin roofs were lifted off roofs off houses. Dieula is standing by a rubble pile near our house.
The refuge camp on Delmas 31 that is up the hill from our street corner suffered damage from large tree limbs falling on tents. These 2 children tried to stay dry in their tent.
The people in the refuge camps have been "camping" for 8 months. The tents were becoming brittle. The storm finished off a lot of these tents.
In the St. Louis refuge camp this tree fell on a few tents. Cleanup was started right away.
The wood will be used as fuel for a cooking fire or sold.
After the earthquake people are quick to move. When the winds gusted people ran from their tents to an area where there were no trees. It was a good thing that they reacted quickly. There were no injuries in the St. Louis camp. This large uprooted tree fell on this tent. If the people wouldn't have reacted quickly they probably would be dead. In the Port-au-Prince area it was estimated that 5 people were killed. We saw several instances where God's grace was shown in sparing people's lives in the camps as people avoided injury from falling trees.
The tents that were originally given to the people were large and strong. The wear and tear is showing in most of them. The Red Cross and other organizations need to provide more tents. There is no quick transfer plans being made for the people in the camps. They need to improve their shelter and can not continue to live in conditions that they are in.
