Haiti – Hurricane Tomas

As of approximately 1:00 p.m., central time, the National Hurricane Center reports that the center of Tomas was about to move through the windward passage. Location: 19.8°N 74.0°W – Max sustained: 85 mph – Moving: NNE at 12 mph – Min pressure: 987 mb

Tomas gained strength overnight to Hurricane force and passed over the southwest peninsula of Haiti this morning. Local officials have called for the evacuation of refugees living in temporary housing that will not be suitable for the high winds and rains, but there is no where for these individuals to evacuate to and a fear that they will lose the small amount of belongs they have.

ELH last night reported rain and high winds, but no additional damage yet. Please remember the people living in Haiti and those working on continued relief efforts.

The long road to recovery in Haiti: Some close-ups

In northern Haiti, members of a community-based group began a feeding program for those displaced by the January 12 earthquake. In the southern coastal city of Jacmel, a group of disaster survivors banded together and moved onto the grounds of a local church. And in Port-au-Prince, a woman who gave birth to her infant son twelve days after the quake wondered what she would do next.

These were some of the Haitians CWS staffer Chris Herlinger met in January and February, immediately after the disaster. Durring a recent return to Haiti, Chris attempted to find these individuals. How are they doing? What are they doing? What are their plans for the future? Here is an update, based on recent travels in Haiti.

Click here to read more.

Haiti – a reflection from Florida

Mary Delasin is one of the Synod Hunger Leaders in Florida-Bahamas Synod. This Synod has been instrumental in the Haiti Earthquake response as the companion along with the ELCA of the Lutheran Church of Haiti. I’m sharing a recent note from Mary sent to Hunger Leaders. Thanks Mary for letting me share your note.

Thanks everyone for the continued prayers and support for Haiti.

Dan. (Daniel Rift, Director ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal)

A note from Mary Delasin, Florida-Bahamas Synod :
Lots of exciting things are happening with the Haitian relief effort! Louis Dorvilier, Director of ELCA Disaster Response, is in Haiti right now working with the pastors of Eglise Lutherienne d’Haiti (Lutheran Church of Haiti). It is a model for how accompaniment can work on a grand scale. They are setting priorities together and working together to carry out a plan that is sustainable in the long term. And working to meet the immediate needs of the people in spite of the overwhelming situation. All of the Haitian pastors and people I have spoken to are all very clear, they want sustainable change for the long term this time. They are tired of so many organizations who do not get past immediate aid, and do not work to change life through sustainable solutions. So often things are looked at through the eyes of what we would want vs. what Haitians need to rebuild a better life for generations.

So much of what we learned in (our Hunger work) is applicable to Haiti. In seeing close up what those World Hunger and Disaster Response funds support, there isn’t a better way to truly make an imprint on this planet for generations to come. God is good. May He richly bless you all in your work!

Mary

And then came the rain…

Wednesday night, Haiti’s capital experienced its heaviest rainfall since the earthquake, a soaking downpour that lasted for several hours. The storm, the second this week, foreshadowed things to come when the rainy season sets in next month.

“It has rained before, but not so hard and so long,” said Marie Lucie Osias, 37, who lives in a makeshift shelter in the Delmas 40-B encampment in Petionville, with her 10-year-old son. Her other three children died in the quake. “Our clothes got wet, everything got wet. I just tried to keep the water out the best I could,” she said. Whenever water started to pool in the tarp that serves as her roof, she would push it up with a stick and try to make sure it ran off to the outside instead of coming in.

Marie Lucie Osias (L), lives with her son (R), the lone earthquake survivor among her four children, in a makeshift shelter. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst/LWR/ACT Alliance)

Shelter is still a major concern in Haiti; the United nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported for the fifth consecutive week that shelter is one of the most urgent priorities facing displaced communities. OCHA estimates that only 24 percent of the 1.3 million people in need of shelter have received tarps or tents.

ELCA Disaster Response is working to provide much needed shelter to people like Marie. The Lutheran World Federation is hard at work to provide shelter materials like tarps and rope while transitional shelters are being constructed. In the future, sturdier shelters will be needed as families prepare to cope with the annual hurricane season. ELCA Disaster Response has also provided funds for the purchase and shipping of 12,000 tarps through Lutheran World Relief to be distributed in Haiti by Church World Service and the Lutheran World Federation.

Click here to read the full article on shelter needs from the ACT Alliance.

Prayers & Hymns in Haiti

People hold candles during a mass in the shadows of the ruins of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was devastated in a January 12 earthquake. Paul Jeffrey ACT Alliance

It has been one month of suffering since the earthquake in Haiti. In Port-au-Prince and other parts of Haiti, individuals and families affected commemorated the tragedy this weekend. In churches and public spaces tens and tens of thousands gathered to share their grief, prayers and hope for days ahead. ELCA Disaster Response, through the ACT Alliance, is supporting many of these families that gathered recently in hymn and prayer.

I invite you to view a slide-show of this at: Prayers & Hymns in Haiti

Pastor Lauvanus Returns to Haiti

Haitians, like this boy, scavenge amidst the rubble for something of value in the devastated center of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was ravaged by a January 12 earthquake. Photo by Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance.

I want to share with you a letter received from Pastor Joseph Livenson Lauvanus, the President of the Lutheran Church in Haiti. On January 20th, the ELCA formalized our relationship with the church in Haiti, showing greater solidarity and commitment to accompany this small church as it responds to the needs of its community in the wake of this national disaster.

Pr. Lauvanus was in Florida when the earthquake happened but on January 29th, with the assistance of ELCA Disaster Response, he flew to the Dominican Republic, where he then traveled via a UN Humanitarian Relief Convoy back to Haiti. He is currently staying on the LWF compound.

This letter describs his impressions after returning to his homeland after the disaster. Please keep Pr. Lauvanus in your prayers.

Dear friends,

I reach Haiti yesterday afternoon. It was time for me to finally see things for myself for me not to live in denial anymore. From the DR to the LWF I did not see much of what was going on. I just see a few demolished buildings. This morning I went to Port-au-Prince and from there to Carrefour, and it is the first time in my entire life I’ve seen so much destructions. Read More…

Lutheran Disaster Response