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Earthquake Devastation Reaches Far and Wide

By Scheeler Devis, Heritagekonpa Magazine and Radio Heritage (101.9FM)

Petit Goave, a costal city located about 33 miles west of Port-Au-Prince, was also devastated by the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck Haiti last Tuesday. With approximately 60 percent of homes and buildings leveled in destruction, this city is largely in ruins. According to Radio Heritage radio reporters, nearly one-third of the 120,000 population may have perished in the quake, including political leader, Hubert De Ronceray, and Haiti 's Chief Justice, Rock Cadet.

The immediate needs of the city are enormous. The population has yet to receive the international aid or any significant resources that are being diverted to Port-Au-Prnce. Mayor Justal Marc Roland and other city officials are pleading for help as desperate residents face a sixth day with little food, water or medical care.

Petit Goave before the earthquake

La Ville De Petit Goave..
Petit-Goâve est à 53 kil. O. S. O. de Port-au-Prince, fondée au début du 17ème siècle plus précisément en 1655, était en tant que point stratégique des flibustiers après l'Ile de La Tortue. Dans cette anse immense..Suite..

A disproportionate number of the buildings are said to have collapsed. It was estimated that one of every three houses in the city is either damaged or destroyed. Power supplies were cut off and communications towers were destroyed as many buildings, including historical icons like Notre Dame Church, Hotel Le Relais, Pharmacy Caymite, Primary School Sacred Heart, and College of Petit-Goave, were destroyed or damaged. As such, Petit-Goave and its surrounding areas are in complete darkness and the power plant, which was moved from mid-town to the mountainside of Morne Tapion is not operational. Route national #1, the only highway that connects the city to neighboring cities such Grand-Goave, Leogane, Port-Au-Prince, and the south has also been severely damaged as part of the mountains of Morne Tapion blocks the road.

Jocelin Leonard, director of Radio Heritage (101.9 FM), the largest radio station in the city, reported Hospital Notre-Dame, the only health facility of the city, to be at full capacity with minimal medicine and basic supplies to treat the wounded. The city urgently needs help to remove hundreds of corpses that remain unclaimed and which are literally piling up in the streets. As people become sick of the thickening stench of the dead, it is critical that more is done to address the needs in Petit-Goave.

There is growing fear of desperation in the city because signs of humanitarian relief that is so prominent in the capital has not yet trickled into Petit-Goave and the surrounding countryside. Like so many others Roudy Malbrance, a super market owner whose house was destroyed, said his wife and his two kids are now sleeping on the street. Indeed, when half of the surviving population are camped on the street, the need that exists is self-evident.