Over 4,300 families affected by tornado in northwestern Haiti’s Bassin-Bleu, official reports

Kervenson Martial
The Haïtian Times Contributor

PORT-DE-PAIX— Three days after a devastating tornado swept through Haiti’s northwestern commune of  Bassin-Bleu, about 122 miles north of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital city, local authorities provided a detailed assessment of the damage and affected population. In the hardest-hit areas of La Source and Fon Papay (Creole for Papaya Valley), 4,350 families were impacted, Bassin-Bleu Mayor Antony Manigat told the Haitian Times on May 23. Although the powerful tornado caused no fatalities, it left 51 individuals critically injured, hundreds homeless, and numerous homes excessively damaged or completely destroyed.

According to Mayor Manigat, who read from a report he said he was not authorized to distribute to the press, 725 families were displaced and are now living in temporary shelters. Additionally, 651 schoolchildren could not return to their damaged schools, 436 homes were completely destroyed and 115 others severely damaged.

Despite the severity of the tornado’s destruction, the victims have yet to receive any emergency assistance from the central government of Haiti, let alone support for long-term recovery.

Manigat lamented the indifference of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT, per its French acronym) and the outgoing government led by interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert toward Bassin-Bleu in the aftermath of the natural disaster, which left the community begging for help.

“Three days have passed since the tornado, and I have not received any call or visit from central government authorities,” the town mayor said. “People are saying we have a 9-member presidential council. None of these councilors has called me or visited the victims to assess the damage caused by the tornado in the commune so that they know what kind of assistance people need.”

The mayor mentioned that the only visits the affected communities had received were from the Northwest Department’s heads of the Haitian Red Cross and Civil Protection, a Ministry of Interior and Territorial Collectivities unit responsible for emergency assistance and disaster relief. However, Manigat conceded that these visits did not change anything for the victims. “People have not yet received any real support,” he added.

Victims urgently need help

Some residents of La Source and Fon Papay, the hardest-hit areas, said they have lost everything, including their most important asset—their homes.

Numerous families, like that of Elméus Jean-Baptiste, head of a 5-member household, did not sustain serious injuries. However, Jean-Baptiste said his family lost all their belongings.

“No one was seriously injured, thank God,” Jean-Baptiste exclaimed. “We didn’t go to the hospital, but we lost everything inside my house. The tornado took away everything—from our beds, mattresses, and suitcases to clothes, birth certificates, passports, and property titles.”

Before the tornado, Jean-Baptiste and his family had sought refuge in La Source from Tiboukan, a locality in the Artibonite Department about 20 miles north, to escape gang attacks. These armed gangs are from Tibwadòm, another nearby locality in the Artibonite Department.

Despite not receiving any help, some tornado victims have been working day and night to rebuild or repair their homes with whatever means they have.

“We didn’t die; it’s the greatest grace of God,” Saint-Luc Sainvilma rejoiced. “I am doing what I can to repair my damaged house. I don’t want to wait for help from the state authorities, which may never come,” the La Source resident said. “I am already having difficulty sleeping, finding clothes to wear and food to feed my family.”

Sainvilma is relieved that his farm was not ravaged by the tornado and that he did not lose any animals. “But the situation I am living in is very complicated, with so much damage to my house,” he added.

Gurdy John Dorvilien, from Fon Papay, said most affected families still desperately need temporary shelters, food, water and basic necessities more than a week after the tornado’s passage. They also need materials such as cement, iron, wood, sheet metal and nails to facilitate the reconstruction or repair of their homes.

“The government has not given us any assistance; we have been fighting this natural catastrophe alone,” Sainvila Georges lamented. “Our already precarious living conditions continue to deteriorate more and more after the tornado,” added the mother of six.

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