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ASSOCIATED PRESSRain And Mud Pour Over Haiti's Homeless
By Paisely Dodds and Jonathan M. Katz / AP
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A heavy downpour sent the throngs living beside Haiti's shattered national palace cowering under tarps yesterday as the rush of water made much of the camp of earthquake victims impassable - an ominous foretaste of the rainy season to come.
Amputees struggled to maneuver through mud on crutches and wheelchairs.
Many in the makeshift tent cities housing nearly 600,000 people in Haiti's capital still live without even plastic tarps, which the international community is trying to get to everyone by May 1.
So when the rain comes, bed sheets spread on sticks as protection from the sun quickly get soaked and people move in temporarily with neighbors who have waterproof tents. The lucky actually have beds off the ground.
"It's hard to keep my kids clean," said Joseph Dukens, 25, at the camp beside the national palace. "There's too much rain, too much dirt."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said yesterday that his government could collapse because political foes were capitalizing on its inability to address the staggering fallout of the quake.
Bellerive told the Associated Press that he had two immediate fears - how people living in the streets will deal with the rainy season and the danger of political divisiveness.
"You have the feeling that everyone is trying to do his little part and accuse the other one of not doing his part," Bellerive said, including Haitian politicians, international groups, and the business community. "Everyone is trying to create conflict when we have the same enemy right now: It's misery, it's disaster."
The factions have been wrangling for five weeks over how to house earthquake survivors, but neither the weather nor the people are waiting.
Makeshift camps have hardened into shantytowns, adding a new dimension to the capital's teeming slum life with an extra helping of disease, hunger, and misery brought on by the Jan. 12 disaster, which killed more than 200,000.
People are in some very dangerous places: at the bottom of hillsides they know will collapse in a heavy rain or near riverbeds that are bound to flood. They are crowded into polluted areas where sanitation is limited and disease is already starting to spread.
"The government has said for weeks that they have identified sites, but time is getting short and there has been little progress," said Ian Bray, an Oxfam spokesman.
Yesterday, a group of U.S. senators sent a letter to President Obama urging the immediate relocation of displaced Haitians to higher ground before the rainy season begins in earnest.
"Tragedy will strike again when the rain comes," they wrote. "We urge your administration to stress this point with President [Rene] Preval and Prime Minister Bellerive."
Sens. George LeMieux and Bill Nelson of Florida, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota also encouraged long-term investment, micro-loans for small businesses, and movement of commerce outside Port-au-Prince.
