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Haiti After Gustav: Your Help Is Needed w/Update

By Alexa

From Kyle at Citizen Orange, more news on the urgent need for help in Haiti.

Haiti is suffering from it's very own Katrina and barely a peep can be heard about it from the U.S. Reports from the Associated Press doesn't paint a much rosier picture:

"They are screaming for help," Norsil said as a U.N. aid convoy tried unsuccessfully to drive into Gonaives, now surrounded by a virtual lake of floodwaters. A team of AP journalists accompanied the convoy.

[...]

"The situation is as bad as it can be," said Vadre Louis, a U.N. official in Gonaives. "The wind is ripping up trees. Houses are flooded with water. Cars can't drive on the street. You can't rescue anyone, wherever they may be."

Jonathan M. Katz - Associated Press (2 September 2008)

Also please see Eating Dirt was Just The Beginning: Haiti Action Diary by Nightprowl Kitty.
The situation in Haiti will deteriorate even more (and very quickly) without some humanitarian assistance.

Rainfall from Hannah continues.

Kyle says it best:

I'm going to get in touch with friends about how best to assist Haiti in the wake of this disaster.  When making change there is frequently a conflict between the local and the global. But with all the attention that Gustav has gotten in the U.S. I think it's safe to advocate that people who truly care about this should be assisting Haiti.

Please help if you can. I'll update this throughout the day, but let's try to spread the word.

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Update 1800 hours

More deaths as another storm lashes Haiti -- (RadioJamaica)
UN peacekeepers and aid workers said they tried in vain to help people in the flooded northern Haitian city of Gonaives.  

Hanna has already claimed more than 19 lives in Haiti, 12 of them from Gonaives as heavy rain left many people for a second night stranded on the roofs of their homes.  

Local police reported seeing bodies floating by.

Hanna flooding strands hungry Haitians on rooftops - (AP)
"There is no food, no water, no clothes," said the 37-year-old pastor, Arnaud Dumas. "I want to know what I'm supposed to do. ... We haven't found anything to eat in two, three days. Nothing at all."

About two-thirds of Gonaives was covered in mud, although it was difficult to determine the extent of the flooding from the air, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Matt Moorlag said after planes conducted flyovers.

On the ground, men used pieces of styrofoam as kickboards to try to swim out of town. People waited to help along the shores of the newly formed lake, and Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said people stranded on rooftops were becoming increasingly desperate.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).