{"id":77989,"date":"2021-08-30T14:23:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T21:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldvision.org\/?p=77989"},"modified":"2021-09-02T15:50:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T22:50:52","slug":"after-haiti-earthquake-mourning-with-marceline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldvision.org\/disaster-relief-news-stories\/after-haiti-earthquake-mourning-with-marceline","title":{"rendered":"After Haiti earthquake, mourning with Marceline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Guy Vital-Herne is a communications officer for World Vision in Haiti<\/a>. Guy served as a translator for World Vision after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He and survivors share their firsthand accounts of the aftermath of the 2021 earthquake<\/a>, where World Vision is gearing up to help 240,000 people, 60,000 of whom are children, through access to clean water and purifiers, tents and mattresses, food supplies, infant-care kits, and child protection programs.<\/em><\/p>\n

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As we approached the community of Marceline, I could feel a heaviness in the air. Right by the highway, the area was quiet, although many people were standing and walking by the roadside.<\/p>\n

Their gazes were vague, in deep sorrow, distant.<\/p>\n

We could no longer stay in our car. It felt wrong.<\/p>\n

I grabbed my cameras and started walking up the highway following the cracks that cut deep into the road. I couldn’t utter a word. Something was weighing down on me. There was something in the air. Something distant but familiar. Something I’d lived through before and that I could never forget.<\/p>\n

It was the smell.<\/p>\n

I realized what had happened when I saw three birds flying in a circle. Someone told me that they’re flesh eaters. My heart sank.<\/p>\n

The feeling that laid on me all this time, this heaviness, the respectful silence.<\/p>\n

I was in a cemetery. Everybody here was mourning someone: a parent, a child, a friend, a neighbor. Nothing could distract them from their sorrow and their pain.<\/p>\n

Some were sitting by the side of the road, deep in thought. Others were going through the wreckage, desperately trying to save some clothes, a mattress, some utensils, anything that could be used for the next few days — the next few uncertain, puzzling, somber days.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, August 14, 2021, Haiti was rattled by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that ravaged the island’s southern peninsula. The shockwaves spread panic across the whole island, brought death and desolation to thousands of families, overwhelmed hospitals, flattened buildings, and trapped people under rubble in at least two cities in the western part of the southern peninsula.<\/p>\n

According to data released on August 22 from the Directorate of Civil Protection, 2,207 people died, at least 12,268 people are injured, and 334 people are still missing.<\/p>\n

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\n \n \"World\n <\/a>\n 2021 Haiti earthquake | World Vision <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \"2021\n