The small airport of Les Cayes, the main source of supply for the earthquake zone, is bustling with aid organizations and foreign aid workers on Tuesday. There was no sign of government officials or aircraft.
When asked where to find state officials in the area, a prominent local political party boss and former senator, Hervé Fourcand — who had used his own seven-seat propeller plane to fly badly injured earthquake victims to Port-au-Prince on Sunday — walked briskly away from a NewsMadura reporter in silence.
The government said this week it would centralize all relief efforts in Port-au-Prince through a new organization, The National Center for Emergency Operations, to avoid the mistakes made during the 2010 earthquake.
However, it was unclear on Wednesday whether the new agency was receiving or coordinating deliveries. The Prime Minister’s Office directed questions about the relief efforts to the Home Secretary, who was not available for comment.
Some aid organizations and donor governments say they only started delivering the aid themselves after informing the authorities of their plans.
For many residents of southern Haiti, the disaster was just the last hardship they endured on their own in a country ravaged by endemic poverty and corruption.
On Monday, many tried to carry on as usual, amid the rubble.
In Toirac, Paulette Toussaint washed her children’s laundry and hung it over the rubble of her ruined house. Ruth Milord, a 23-year-old daughter of Mr Milord the farmer, sat down to play a local board game called Rome with her friends and relatives outside her collapsed house. They balanced the plate on their knees, because they had no table left. The university, where she studied agronomy, also collapsed, shattering her plans for the future.
