By NICOLE SHANLEY
Hurricane Matthew has left Haiti in complete disaster and killed as many as 900 people in the process.
Matthew destroyed about 90 percent of south Haiti on October 4.
Hurricane Matthew has been declared as a category 4 hurricane, with winds as high as 125 m.p.h, heavy rains that flattened homes, flooded villages and even some parts of the island completely fallen off. In addition to those who lost their lives, they are still a few missing, hundreds injured and thousands displaced.
“The death toll is rising on an hourly basis as aid workers and authorities get into these really hard-hit regions where not only communication and power were knocked out, but the roads were knocked out, so there has really been no way in,” CNN International Correspondent Shasta Darlington reported from Port-au-Prince.
They cannot pinpoint an exact number, merely because they cannot find all of the people.
One of the biggest concern’s following this disaster is the nation’s cholera epidemic, especially after the earthquake that struck Haiti back in 2010, killing at least 10,000 people, according to CNN.
The lack of clean water in Haiti has always been a major concern, but especially after a disaster like this, it could be near impossible to find any clean water at all.
Officials say that this was in fact the worst humanitarian crisis the island has faced since the earthquake. An estimated 500,000 children alone live in the areas of south Haiti that were effected the worst.
Additionally, 900,000 Haitian children have been directly effected by hurricane Matthew. UNICEF, World Relief and other big name companies are working hard to raise money for their relief efforts, as well as help all of those effected in any way that they can.
Relief Efforts
UNICEF, a nonprofit children’s relief fund organization located in New York City, raises money for humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and their mothers in developing countries. Typically, even before a disaster strikes, they work to enhance emergency responses in these communities.
In the event of a catastrophic event happening such as the hurricane, pre-positioned essential supplies are deployed from their warehouses, such that include water purification units, medical supplies, therapeutic food and emergency generators.
Without this help from countries that are much more well off, an island like Haiti would be in shambles for decades, if not permanently.
“Our first priority is to make sure children have enough safe water,” says UNICEF Haiti’s Marc Vincent. The risk of epidemics is very real, and clean water is by far the greatest priority and the first step in tackling these health concerns.
World Relief, an organization that works closely with the church to provide help to the most vulnerable, took bold initiative to help Haiti immediately after the hurricane and had a very positive outcome.
“A donor has stepped forward and generously offered to match any donation supporting our aid and development work in Haiti up to $35,000,” according to World Relief.
This was huge and made donations increase drastically.
We can only hope that anyone who can contribute, will. At this point in time, all that these poor people effected by the storm have to rely on, are the efforts of other countries, as they have absolutely nothing.
It’s horrible what has happened to Haiti within the last 6 years. Haiti has not even recovered from 2010’s Hurricane due to their lack of resources. I would like to know if the UN is thinking about anything to help prepare Haiti and other countries around the world so we are not losing so many lives. I would also like to know when Trump thinks about this whole epidemic if he doesn’t believe in Global Warming. Science can really eat at his ego, because science is always true.