Connect with us

International

Death toll from Hurricane Mathew destruction in Haiti reaches 339

Published

on

Death toll from Hurricane Mathew destruction in Haiti reaches 339
The death toll arising from the destruction caused by Hurricane Mathew, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade has now reached 339 according to civil protection officials.
Residents in coastal villages and towns began making contact with the outside world two days after being hit by Hurricane Mathew as dead bodies started to appear late on Thursday as waters receded in some places after Matthew’s 235k/ph winds smashed concrete walls, flattened palm trees and tore roofs off homes, forcing thousands of Haitians to flee.
At least 50 people were reported to have died in coastal Roche-a-Bateau, which local officials described as “devastated”.
 
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Louis Paul Raphael, a central government representative in Roche-a-Bateau, told Reuters.
In the Sous-Roche district of Les Cayes, Haiti’s third city on its exposed southern coast, residents tried to help out their neighbours.
“I’ve been on my feet for two days without sleep. We need to help each other,” Dominique Osny told newsmen amid the debris and destruction left when the storm passed through on Tuesday.
“Everyone is a victim here, houses have been washed away, we lost all the roofing. I lost everything, right up to my birth certificate,” he said, citing a vital document hard to replace in Haiti.
 
 
RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now