‘DEVASTATING’
Haiti hurricane hits Redblacks exec hard
First, the most important detail: Mario Ducheine is safe. He was able to contact his Quebec-based cousin, Marie-Lourdes Ducheine, and assure her of that.
Unfortunately, hurricane Matthew cut a wide swath of destruction after it struck Haiti earlier this week. The country’s interior minister said Thursday that at least 108 deaths had been reported and more than 28,000 homes had been damaged.
It was yet another tragic blow for a country where a 2010 earthquake left more than 200,000 dead and tens of thousands living in tents and makeshift dwellings. Many were still living in shelters when hurricane Matthew struck, media reports said.
“It’s just a matter to see, once things calm down, just how bad it really is,” said Jean-Marc Edmé, Marie-Lourdes’ son, “but it doesn’t look good.”
Edmé has a job that couldn’t possibly be more removed from the current situation facing relatives and others in Haiti. He’s player personnel coordinator of the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League, and being both secure and isolated from the hurricane has left him with a wide range of emotions.
“All of the above,” the Montreal native said in an interview at TD Place stadium. “I will be confident that the people (of Haiti) will move forward, that the country will get back to what it was before, and also you’re frustrated that this is another catastrophe that happened in Haiti, especially the (2010) earthquake and now this.
“But you have to stay positive, and you have to give back. I want to go back, and I want to do my part. And, yes, I kind of feel helpless that I’m here, and I’m really fortunate to be here, but it’s really, really devastating, what’s going on.”
Edmé said he had tried to visit Haiti every other year or so, and he was in the hurricane-damaged city of Saint-Marc in 2015 as part of a trip that also took him to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. He hopes to return to Haiti in December to help rebuild houses and other structures.
The 36-year-old described his handyman skills as “not bad, but, hey, I can lift and I can do whatever people ask me to do.”
Edmé is completing his first season on the Redblacks’ staff and spending eight years with the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes, including stints as a coaching assistant and scout. Before that, he spent one year as a football-operations intern with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, where he first worked with Marcel Desjardins, now the Redblacks’ general manager.