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Amizia Renotte sat on a broken piece of concrete and pointed to a large pile of dirt where her home once stood before the outer bands of Hurricane Melissa collapsed as the storm devastated Haiti’s southern region.
The Atlantic hurricane season may be over, but thousands of people like Renotte in this Caribbean country and beyond are still searching for food and struggling to rebuild their lives nearly two months after the Category 5 hurricane struck the Northern Territory. Caribbean The region is the site of one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in history.
“We ran. We had nothing to save,” said Renotte, as she recalled waking up surrounded by floodwaters in the middle of the night.
Melissa killed at least 43 people across Haiti, many of them in Petit-Goave, where residents are still digging out from under the storm that caused deadly flooding.
Huge piles of filth and mud now surround this southern coastal town that was once bustling with farmers and street vendors.
The groan of heavy machinery fills the air as crews slowly clear debris scattered by the La Digue River, which swept away children, cars and homes in late October.
,People Lost everything,” said resident Claremont Wood Mandy. “They lost their homes. They lost their children.”
hunger Keeps maintained
Petit-Gouvé held a mass funeral in mid-November to say goodbye to his loved ones, but hunger and desperation persisted.
On a recent morning, people crowded around a small convenience store stocked with locally produced pasta, butter, rice and other basic items after receiving cash donations.
Next in line to buy something was Jocelyn Antoine, 37, who lost five of her relatives in the storm.
“My house has been destroyed,” he said.
Lola Castro, regional director of the U.N. World Food Program, or WFP, who recently visited Petit-Goave, said in a phone interview Friday that Melissa has deepened Haiti’s crisis.
“About 5.3 million people in Haiti do not have enough to eat every day,” he said. “It’s a huge challenge.”
Castro said the Petit-Goave was an agricultural community that depended heavily on crops including bananas, corn and beans.
“They have lost their income. They have lost their means of survival,” he said.
‘No community will be forgotten’
Jamaica is also struggling to recover from Hurricane Melissa, which struck the western part of the neighboring island in late October, causing an estimated $8.8 billion in damage.
According to Alvin Gale, Director General of Jamaica’s Office of Emergency Management, at least 45 people were killed and 13 others are missing in the storm, with an additional 32 deaths being investigated.
Authorities have reported 30 confirmed cases of leptospirosis – an infection transmitted from animals – and another 84 unconfirmed cases, along with 12 related deaths. There were also two cases of tetanus, one of which was fatal.
“These figures underline the scale of the humanitarian impact and the seriousness of recovery efforts by government ministries, departments and agencies,” Gayle said.
More than 100 shelters are open in seven parishes in Jamaica, housing more than 1,000 people.
Meanwhile, around 160 schools are closed.
“No community will be forgotten,” Gale said.
Jamaica recently announced it had secured a $150 million loan to help restore power as quickly as possible, with officials saying they expect power to be fully restored by the end of January.
Jamaica has also received a $6.7 billion package from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean for reconstruction efforts over three years; Caribbean Development Bank; Inter-American Development Bank Group; International Monetary Fund; and the World Bank Group.
call for funding
In CubaHours after the storm struck Jamaica, hundreds of people are still living in temporary shelters in the eastern region of the island, nearly two months after the storm struck.
No storm-related deaths were reported in Cuba, where authorities evacuated more than 700,000 people from coastal areas.
Nearly a month after the storm, the United Nations said about 53,000 people in Cuba were unable to return to their homes, including 7,500 living in official shelters.
WFP’s Castro said Hurricane Melissa affected 6 million people overall in the Caribbean, including 1.2 million in Haiti.
Castro said that about 1.3 million people in the region now need food, protection or other types of assistance, with WFP helping 725,000 of them so far.
He said he expects the number to rise, noting that the agency’s $83 million appeal is only 50% funded.
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Puerto Rico.