Everyone is trying to leave Gonaives to reach the mountains in an effort to flee the water for higher ground

Photo of people waiting for food in Gonaives

Pastor Brown reports that Pastor Robert's mother is fine.

I talked with Archange today who reports he located some type of juice that he could pour on his feet to relieve the cuts and swelling. He said his family is ok. He also reports that Pastor Joseph Garcon who oversees the school in the mountain of Decharos had his home in Gonaives destroyed by the flood. He added that everyone is trying to leave Gonaives to reach the mountains in an effort to flee the water for higher ground.

Last night, I also talked with 20 year old Joseph, who broke down and wept as he shared how he has no place to sleep or live and has had little to no sleep for the past week as well as no water to drink or bathe in and no clothing besides what he has on. Those of us that know him remember when we were there in June how he would return home in the afternoon to bathe and change clothes because he didn't like being dirty or sweaty. In addition, he is suffering with his feet. He wants to try and go to St. Marc however, it was hard hit also. He reported carcasses of donkeys, horses, pigs and other debris in the waters they must walk in and an infestation of flies.

Please pray for him and others due to the lack of clean drinking water, food, medicine as well as the toxins, debris, bacteria and carcasses in the waters. Although some aid is coming in at the port of Gonaives, it is running out before it gets very far inland and thus has not reached our people.

Pastor Ollie

Here is what today's media reports from NY Times has to say about the situation:
In Haiti, where the fourth-largest city, Gonaïves, remained underwater from Hurricane Gustav, rain fell and at least 10 more people died of drowning, according to reports from news services. By late Sunday the number of people reported killed in Haiti just from the effects of Hurricane Ike reached at least 58. The total of those killed in Haiti in the recent storms was in the hundreds.
Meanwhile, a bridge collapsed, adding to the isolation of the suffering people of Gonaïves.
“What I saw in this city today is close to hell on earth,” Hédi Annabi, the United Nations special representative to Haiti, said on Saturday in Gonaïves, where children were chasing trucks carrying food and shouting, “Hungry! Hungry!”
The airport in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, was closed for part of Sunday, and flights from Miami were canceled.
Some travelers who were lined up at the Miami airport toted huge duffel bags that they said contained supplies for ailing relatives.
In Cuba, where relief efforts from Hurricane Gustav were under way in the west, the government evacuated vulnerable communities as the new hurricane bore down on the island with heavy winds and rain that could total 10 inches.