Hurricane Matthew relief effort in Haiti enters new phase

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Hurricane Matthew relief effort in Haiti enters new phase

Aid beginning to trickle in.

Ben Fox And Ben Finley, Associated Press on October 13, 2016

An international relief effort for victims of Hurricane Matthew entered a more advanced stage Thursday as a second U.S. military ship arrived off Haiti’s coast and U.N. convoys and non-government organizations began reaching more isolated communities.

Food, clean water and construction materials have begun pouring into the southwestern peninsula, though many people there still say they’ve seen little or no aid.

Those working to send everything from water purification systems to building materials say the scope of the damage from Matthew and the difficulty reaching people create logistical challenges similar to those faced after the devastating earthquake that struck the crowded capital and surrounding areas in January 2010. But while the death toll from last week’s storm is in the hundreds, the Haitian government has said the earthquake killed more than 300,000.

The Haitian government says more than 1.4 million people urgently need humanitarian assistance. The official death toll is 473, though local officials have reported figures suggesting it will eventually be higher, and the homes of more than 120,000 families were damaged or destroyed.

But amid the challenges, the relief effort has risen visibly in recent days. Teams from the Haitian Red Cross and Civil Protection agency have fanned out across the peninsula and large convoys from the U.N. and the migration agency are seen more throughout the disaster zone. On Wednesday, the U.S. military made 13 helicopter flights to hard-to-reach areas with 159 metric tons of food supplies, the U.S. Agency for International Development said.

On Thursday, USAID announced more than $12 million in additional humanitarian assistance to aid hurricane-stricken communities. David Harden, head of humanitarian assistance for the U.S. agency, said the package of short-term relief for Haiti includes $7 million for food and $3 million for emergency relief supplies. USAID will also ship in 38 metric tons of chlorine to help provide clean water, a critical issue to fight a spike of cholera.

Harden said the U.S. is also looking into long-term assistance in co-ordination with the Haitian government and other partners but the details have yet to be determined.

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Hurricane Matthew relief effort in Haiti enters new phase