23223: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-S. Fla. Haitians help homeland's storm victims (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, Sep. 21, 2004






TROPICAL STORM JEANNE


S. Fla. Haitians help homeland's storm victims

Haitian Americans in South Florida offered relief for family and friends.
Some viewed the catastrophe as an opportunity to approach Haiti's
government.

By TRENTON DANIEL

tdaniel@herald.com


Relatives have disappeared. The death toll mounts. Seaside towns are partly
submerged. These made up the troubling stories relayed to friends and family
in South Florida's Haitian neighborhoods Monday as they struggled to learn
about Tropical Storm Jeanne's devastation in northwestern Haiti.

Such relief groups as the Health Foundation are trying to activate a food
and clothing effort called Food for the Poor; the Deerfield Beach-based Food
for the Poor plans to send 25 containers of food, emergency supplies,
bedding, and kerosene lamps to such affected cities as Gonaives and
Port-de-Paix as soon as staff can cross flooded roads.

Haitian-American community groups spent the day trying to put together a
plan. Several groups were meeting Monday.

Meanwhile, Haitians waited and worried about relatives. Jean Maxime, 39, had
been trying to call his mother, brothers and sisters who live near Gonaives,
a port city hit hardest by Jeanne.

PHONE LINES DOWN

''The phone lines are out, which is normal but upsetting,'' Maxime said
while grocery shopping at a Fort Lauderdale market that caters to the
Haitian community. ``They don't have cellphones. I'm going to keep trying.''

Lucius Carmand, 22, whose father has owned the grocery store for 17 years,
sat behind the counter of the small store listening to customers'
frustrations.

CELLPHONES HELPED

''They can't get in touch, but [the government] is doing all it can -- which
might not be a lot,'' Carmand said.

Since most of the phone lines from Haiti's state-run Teleco phone company
were down, cellphones offered a lifeline. Callers gave reports to local
radio stations and could be reached by relatives in South Florida.

Derosiers Johnson spoke to his 63-year-old mother-in-law, Careda Sylvain,
who lives in Gonaives, relieved to discover that flooding didn't force her
to seek reprieve on a rooftop, like so many others, and that she and her
home were fine.

''Her house is OK, but most of the small houses were devastated,'' Johnson,
30, a carpenter, said in front of the Little Haiti Supermarket. ``This
morning we spoke; I was finally relieved.''

Johnson added that Sylvain planned to leave for Marmelade in Haiti's Central
Plateau to escape the high water.

Some viewed the catastrophe as a political occasion -- an opportunity to
approach the interim government, installed after a revolt that forced
Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile in February.

THINKING LONG TERM

''We need to look at long-term solutions,'' said Jean Robert Lafortune,
chair of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition. ``I think it's time we
engage the national government in this dialogue. Without that, we're going
to lose more families and people needlessly.''

Some activists viewed their humanitarian work not so much as getting the
government to act but rather getting the nation to move forward. Until
Haiti's stark political differences are set aside, finding resolutions on
such issues as its ecological problems would remain elusive, they said.

''It is complicated because Haitian society is so fragmented,'' said
Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami.

''There has to be a national dialogue about everything,'' Bastien said.
Johnson echoed that sentiment.

''Instead of blaming it on Mother Nature,'' Johnson said about Jeanne's
devastation, ``they blame it on the political agenda.''

Herald staff writer Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.

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