Living Haiti

Passed...

Well it seems that the worst of the storm passed us. We still have some wind and spotty rain. It comes and goes, but nothing too hard.

I have heard some reports from the radio that a river close to us is flooded. This river is probably a couple miles from where I'm staying. (it's hard for me to tell real distances here because the amount of time it takes me to travel a couple miles here is significantly different than the amount of time that it takes me in the United States.) I know this area well, it's a place I cross many many times when I am in Haiti. The river bank is filled with shaks and markets. I hear the water is almost as high as the bridge...but I haven't seen it, so for me it's all hear-say. If it's true, it's likely that many poor people have lost whatever little belongings they had...and Port Au Prince will have more displaced people.

I've also heard reports of flooding in Leogane. That's a city south of Port Au Prince. It sits close to the water, and I'm not surprised to hear of flooding there. They were hit really hard by the earthquake too. I've heard of some protesting in the streets there.

The good news is that we haven't seen anything too bad here. And if the rain holds off like it is, maybe we can avoid some further flooding.

On a different note. I looked at Gertrude today and laughed because I was shivering...in a long sleeve shirt. I told her I was cold. I decided to check the weather. 79 degrees. Either I've assimilated or weather.com was wrong. I just bought a ticket home to visit my family for Thanksgiving...St. Louis November might be hard for me to handle! oh man. I checked the weather there...it's in the 40s today. Good gracious.