The Aftermath of Hurricane Matthew

Between the dates of September 28th, and October 10th, the first Category-5 hurricane since 2007 to ravage the southern Atlantic, leaving a death toll of 1,045 as the time of writing, and a thousand alone just within the country of Haiti. Leaving an already devastated country from the earthquakes of 2010, and one that is impoverished, was left completely and utterly devastated on all levels. Making matters even worse, tropical storm Nicole brewed in the Mid-Atlantic over the past couple of weeks, and made slight impact on the Caribbean once again before it started a spin off into the Northern Atlantic, and died off right before reaching hurricane levels. Claims are stating that it might make some form of return as the national weather service still declared a warning over the east coast of the United States.

More pressing, is the total destruction of most of Haiti over the the weeks that Matthew made contact. Reports from BBC claim that “90% of southern Haiti is destroyed.” Complete structural failure in buildings, roads torn apart, and flooding that is feet high, which washed away roads and power lines down all across the country.

All of this culminated in one of the worst humanitarian calamity this year. Leaving a massive cholera outbreak across the nation. Any sort of freshwater, or ocean tides has had traces of Cholera within it from infected areas on the island.

Cholera is usually very treatable in first world countries with access to clean water regularly available. According to WHO (World Health Organization), the problem stems from its potential deadliness if left untreated, causing very painful diarrhea, severe dehydration and  nausea from the extreme drain of fluids. This leaves a country like Haiti incredibly vulnerable and leaves room for a potential outbreak.

Cholera in Haiti, although tragic, seems to be nothing particularly new. In 2010, months after the earthquake crisis, a massive cholera outbreak spread from U.N troops that carried the infection from Nepal, to newly set up peacekeeping camps and swept the nation killing thousands of survivors in the country. Reports came out over the following years stating that U.N forces and the Haitian government were attempting to cover up allegations and responsibility for disease spread in the country, speculations that it might be the same strain of bacteria have arose but no confirmations can be made as of yet.  Even to those thinking it’s a one-off deal, Haiti does have a very long history of extreme corruption throughout its government such as neglecting to distribute relief funds from the earthquake and now the Hurricane, silencing of political dissidents or anti-democratic ideals. Even the new alleged evidence that the Clinton Foundation has used its charity to recycle money to and from Haiti to fund themselves; from WikiLeaks or the statements from other opposing party contemporaries.

As for the U.S, the projected impact zone of Florida didn’t occur, but instead made general landfall in the Carolinas near Myrtle Beach, McClellanville, Charleston and parts of Wilmington. Highways and major roads in cities are heavily flooded with numerous feet of water in the way rerouting the traffic over 30 miles around I-95 and the surrounding areas, prompting Governor McCrory to enact a state emergency, calling in $26 million worth of FEMA funds along with the National Guard.

NPR conducted an interview with a reporter, Jay Price of WUNC about some of the conditions…

“Huge amounts, in places much more than a foot – 15 inches. And it was falling on soil that was already saturated. This is much like Hurricane Floyd in 1999. There was a tropical storm that came through just before that, saturated the soil. And so the water just has nowhere to go.

When I drove in, I was for miles and miles, you know, nowhere near any river. There were yards; there were fields flooded. And it was just because the soil was saturated and couldn’t really accept any more water, so now it’s just rising everywhere.”

Conditions have been improving since the date of the Hurricane, leaving rescue crews with a significantly easier job than the week or so, the death toll is still staggering across the Americas, as one of the most powerful storms in the past 5 years has taken its toll on the many lives of the unprepared.