U.S. military planes are now flying groceries, tarps and other supplies into southern Haiti as international relief efforts shift to focus on helping people in areas hardest hit by the recent earthquake weather the hurricane season.
Planes flying out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, arrived all Saturday in the mostly rural, mountainous southern peninsula that was the epicenter of the August 14 earthquake. In Jeremie, people waved and cheered as a Marine Corps unit from North Carolina dismounted in a tilt rotor Osprey with pallets of rice, tarps, and other supplies.
Most of the material, however, was not intended for Jeremie. It was to be distributed to remote mountain communities where landslides destroyed homes and small plots of land belonging to the many subsistence farmers in the area, said Patrick Tiné of the Haiti Bible Mission, one of several groups that coordinated the relief deliveries.
“They lost their gardens, they lost their animals,” Tine said when he paused while helping unload boxes of rice. “The mountains have slipped and they have lost everything.”
At the request of the Haitian government, the focus of the US $ 32 million relief effort is now on helping these people as soon as possible, said Tim Callahan, head of the US Agency for International Development’s disaster relief team.
Immediately after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people and damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes, the focus was on search and rescue.
This was made more difficult by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Grace and earthquake damage to roads and bridges in an area where the infrastructure was initially in poor condition. The gang threat in a country still affected by the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise also made it difficult to distribute aid. As a result, many Haitians had grown impatient with the relief efforts.
“We’re just trying to get as much material as possible into the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible. If you do that, the frustration will go down, “Callahan said of the roar of helicopters at Port-au-Prince airport, where US troops and civilian workers had to load planes with pallets in the hot sun.
This is where the US military comes in. Troops led by the Miami-based Southern Command have provided more than £ 265,000 in relief supplies to date.
These forces include the North Carolina unit known as the Fighting Griffins, based at the New River Marine Corps Air Station, which allowed Associated Press journalists to come along when they provided emergency supplies.
Two crews took off from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flew to Port-au-Prince to fetch supplies, and then made several trips across the mountainous southern peninsula to deliver their cargoes.
It was a joyful mission with the flight crew and pilots helping Haitian helpers unload the aircraft and then shaking hands in goodbye.
A crew who delivered more than 8,500 pounds of goods on Saturday alone brought a Marine of Haitian descent from New York City as an interpreter. “It really means a lot to me to do something like this,” said Lance Cpl. Lunel Najac.
The US effort is expected to continue for at least a few more weeks, but whether it will be enough to get people through the remainder of the hurricane season remains to be seen.
“People need food, water, tents, tarps,” said Wilkens Sanon of the Mission of Hope Foundation, another group that works with the US to help the people who need them most.
“It’s very, very bad right now,” he said.