‘We don’t have time to heal’: Post-earthquake floods cause more trauma in Haiti | global development

The people living in Grand Anse immediately felt the impact of last month’s earthquake. Within minutes, the 5.5-magnitude earthquake on Haiti’s west coast on June 6 flattened homes, shutting down major roads and flooding healthcare facilities with patients.

At Saint-Antoine hospital in the regional capital, Jérémy, people with open wounds and dislocated joints have been forced to stand in the corridors sobbing, doctors say.

Although the earthquake was not the strongest in Haiti’s horrific history of natural disasters, it shook the weakest of institutions. It came grimly just days after flash floods displaced more than 13,000 people and killed at least 50.

“Disasters strike Haiti, left and right. People have not had enough time to recover from previous disasters, only to be hit by flash floods, earthquakes and landslides in a matter of days,” says Dr. Didino Tamakloui, country director in Haiti for Project Hope, a humanitarian aid organization responding to Crisis on Jeremy.

Four people were officially killed and 37 injured in the quake, but many were unable to reach hospitals due to landslides, road blockages and fuel price hikes.

The collapse of the Haitian state in recent years means there is little help for people to rebuild their homes and lives. Local government does not have the ability to respond. Every time there is a disaster, or a hurricane, or an earthquake, we are left to help ourselves,” says 51-year-old Aurelien Esnael. His arm was in a sling after he dislocated his shoulder during the earthquake. He will need the help as he recovers from extensive shoulder surgery over the months. He will have to rely on friends to feed, house and care for him.

“Without a job I can’t pay my children’s school fees, I can’t pay for my medication, I can’t even find money to eat,” he says.

Haitians cross the flooded National Route 2, after heavy rains hit the country at the beginning of June. Photo: Richard Perrin/AFP/Getty Images

Since the killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, the country has spiraled out of control as armed gangs fight for control. The economy has been crippled, millions are going hungry and cholera is back. On 1 July, the Ministry of Health reported 400 weekly cases of the bacterial disease since the earthquake, four times the number reported on 31 May.

Our children grow up surrounded by trauma. The whole community feels tense Marie-Joseph

Some health centers remain mere rubble after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the south of the country in 2021, while beds in other hospitals lie on concrete blocks and are tended to by overworked nurses and lack essential medicines and medical supplies.

“These conditions are expected to persist — and possibly worsen — throughout the hurricane season,” says Brenda Rivera Garcia, senior program manager for Americares Latin America and the Caribbean. The NGO is currently preparing a team to send to Jeremy.

Damaged buildings in Jeremy after the earthquake. Photo: Richard Perrin/AFP/Getty Images

People leave the country by any means, legal or illegal. “There is no more hope,” says Flavia Maurilo, director of the Italian NGO AVSI in Haiti. Many NGOs have also left because the country has become too unsafe or difficult to operate in.

MSF has suspended operations in its closed hospitals or centers in Port-au-Prince several times over the past two years. Al-Jumaa suspended all its activities in its hospital in the Tabari district of the capital, after 20 gunmen stormed the building and detained a patient at gunpoint.

The organization said Port-au-Prince “continues to be mired in accelerating violence”. About 90 gangs now control about 80% of the city, but civilians are still caught up in street skirmishes between rival factions, self-defense brigades, and the police.

A month after the earthquake, NGOs warn that the mental and emotional impact of the disaster, on top of the violence and past disasters, will continue to be felt for generations unless addressed.

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The cumulative trauma Haitians have suffered has left them vulnerable, says Hannah Mackenzie Archer, director of monitoring and learning at Project Hope. “All of this negatively affects the mental health of the individual, the well-being of the community and the ability to heal in a powerful way that allows you to overcome obstacles,” she says.

Marie-Joseph, who watched her neighbors’ home collapse, killing three people inside, says she worries constantly about when the next aftershock will come. “We don’t feel safe or comfortable…we know our homes aren’t safe,” she says.

“I knew these people who died. They were my neighbours, and it hurts me to run outside, watch their house fall and die under it. I have no support for this. Our kids grow up surrounded by trauma. The whole community feels stressed…and that tension develops into other symptoms, You can’t sleep, you get sick, you can’t work, you can’t live like this… We don’t have time to heal.”

Residents of Port-au-Prince flee their homes after clashes between armed gangs in April. Photograph: Ralph Teddy Errol/Reuters

Leaders around the world agree that Haiti desperately needs international help to restore order and end the country’s severe suffering, but there is no diplomatic consensus on how to do this.

Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henri, has called on the United Nations to send troops, but that means supporting a government with little legitimacy. Previous international missions have also been mired in scandal, making diplomatic decisions difficult.

Last month, UN official William O’Neill called for an arms embargo, saying, “The survival of an entire nation is at stake.”

Meanwhile, the Haitians are left to rebuild their homes knowing that another disaster is coming soon and there is not much they can do to prepare for it.

We don’t have building or construction materials to make better housing that won’t fall during an earthquake. Many people know their homes are not safe, but what else can we do? Esnael says.

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