The head of the National Emergency Management Organization Dawn French returned three days ago from earthquake-ravaged Haiti. After spending one week in Jamaica working in the disaster office and two weeks in Haiti, French came home on Sunday, February 7.

Like anyone else who’s seen the aftermath of the January 12 quake first hand, the NEMO head wanted to share her experience, and tell of the work of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the premier disaster management agency of CARICOM.

Haiti joined CDEMA in September 2009 and as Dawn French explained, being part of that agency meant the country had the ability to call on resources from member islands.

French arrived in Haiti one week after the quake and although she said the bodies seen in the international media were cleared by then, the devastation remained.

“No street was spared,” she told local media at a press conference held at the Government Information Service (GIS) studios on Wednesday. “If buildings were not tilted to one side, sections were completely collapsed. It just looked as if a truck came and dropped a pile of rubble on a lot.”
French said the air was still cloudy with dust from the debris of collapsed buildings weeks after the quake. The cement dust was still circulating in the atmosphere because there’d been no rain. Like a number of other islands in the region Haiti is facing water challenges.

French said: “We had to use masks to go around.”

Reporters at the conference posed questions regarding CARICOM’s process of disseminating relief supplies. French explained that the region’s methodology for tackling the Haiti disaster was focusing on seemingly forgotten affected areas.

“We’re not going to popular spots that everyone else seems to be identifying,” she explained. “We’ve gone into a community that’s 40 miles west of Port-Au-Prince called Leogane. We met with the mayor there and he indicated to us some of the communities on the outskirts of that urban centre that had not been receiving relief supplies.”

According to French, CARICOM has been servicing the outskirts of Leogane in two ways. Relief supplies were being distributed by the Caribbean Disaster Relief Unit (CDRU), including food, water and hygiene kits and a medical team was present.

“They’ve been looking at everything from skin rashes, to broken bones,” said French. “While I was there the medical team actually looked at a Cancer patient. Some people are taking the opportunity to profit that the doctors are in their community.

“The Haitian government has begun to emerge,” said French when reporters posed questions about the status of the government in Haiti, whether they had begun to take action and whether the US was in full control.

“It happened in Grenada,” said French. “You have to understand that when a disaster of this magnitude occurs, the persons you are expecting to see leadership from, be it the political directorate, the religious fraternity or the disaster managers, are themselves victims. Everybody is shell shocked just like John Q Public. That was what happened to the Haitian government.”

“They have emerged and are taking control of the situation,” French expressed. “While I was there working with my counterpart from the Department of Civil Protection in Haiti, they were having their regular meetings. We attended some. They asked us to do a couple of things for them and we have done that. The ministers have begun to take control of the response and are asking the countries to follow certain protocols.”

The upcoming hurricane season added to the leftover earthquake fears from persons scared to even sleep indoors, lest the building come toppling down on them. The Haitian minister for environment indicated that the rainy season could start this month.

“The call has gone out for the tents and CARICOM is going to supply at least 100 tents, and obviously more sturdy tents rather than the makeshift shacks that have been put up. The Haitian sun is a killer and a number of people are using sheets, tapoline, anything they can get their hands on to make a makeshift shelter and get out of that blazing sun.”

French said everyone was painfully aware that the hurricane season was approaching as no one could forget Haiti’s four hurricane year. There were other proposals under consideration including constructing timber-housing structures, something that Guyana and Belize could play a major part in.

“While I was there they were still having tremors and up until I left people were still on the edge,” French told the STAR. “People would tell you, yes, they’re still sleeping outside but because of the intense heat. Haiti at night is also very cold. One medic told me she had to make a decision; either sleep in the threshold of her house, and it falls on her and she dies in the earthquake, or stay outside and catch pneumonia and die. She made the decision to move back into the house and she sleeps right next to the front door and if anything, she’s gone like a shot!”

French said rebuilding confidence of people to go back to live in these buildings was something that could not be rushed. There has been talk of providing psychological support for Haitians and in the regard, the NEMO head said: “Everyone’s timeline will be different. Who’s ready to go in now may not be ready to go in next year. So it’s going to take some time with everything else to rebuild the people even as you try to rebuild the country.”