In Brooklyn, fears & prayers for their troubled homeland
Just weeks ago, they gathered in this same spot, concerned Haitian immigrants in Brooklyn shining the spotlight on the latest disaster in their crisis-weary homeland.
That was before a devastating weekend earthquake — the second one in just over a decade — shook residents still recovering from the assassination of Haiti’s president.
Tragedy brought them back together, seeking solace and comfort while organizing action for yet another long recovery.
Murlande Bernard, a nurse with the Haitian Nurses Network, said she has more than 20 relatives in Haiti, aunts, uncles and cousins who rode out Saturday’s earthquake.
“We were able to speak to one person,” Bernard said after a prayer vigil in the Flatbush neighborhood known as Little Haiti. “And that’s what made our minds a little at ease, and that’s how we found out that there are some injuries, but thank God no deaths in the immediate family.
“They’re doing their best to secure and sustain lives by any means necessary with what little they have.”
Locals who gathered outside St. Jerome’s Catholic Church in Little Haiti seemed to know better than to ask what could happen next, particularly with a tropical storm threatening flash flooding and mudslides in the area of Haiti where Saturday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 1,400 people.
Haiti cannot catch a break. After global prayers for mercy, the region is facing the angry wrath of a storm named Grace.
“There’s no place on Earth that’s been put through hell as much as Haiti,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Pain wrapped in pain wrapped in pain.”
De Blasio urged New Yorkers to pitch in with recovery efforts. He said sites for mental health assistance staffed by the city Health
Department and NYC Health + Hospitals have been set up at a Haitian-American training center and the Evangelical Crusade Christian Church.
Meanwhile, the NYPD asked residents to bring medical supplies, flashlights, nonperishable food and personal hygiene items to their local precincts.
“New Yorkers always feel solidarity and connection when one of our homelands is hurting because there is no New York City without the Haitian-American community,” de Blasio said. “It doesn’t exist.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton said his National Action Network is donating $10,000 to Haitian relief groups, and said the U.S. must stand by the stricken nation.
“In the last 30 days, Haiti has seen its president assassinated, a 7.2 earthquake, and now a pending storm,” Sharpton said. “I don’t care what our political differences are. I don’t care who doesn’t like who. This is about when the family comes together and stands together.”
Lovely Pierre said she has family in Les Cayes, including her uncle Luders Erase.
“He’s a community leader in the epicenter where it happened and he does not want to leave,” Pierre said. “There are a lot of people who have family members who are missing, or have died, so he has been able to help them.”
The crisis comes just five weeks after assassins stormed the home of Haitian President Jovenel Moise and fatally shot him in an attack that also wounded his wife. Haitians there and abroad have been on edge — not just about the country’s political future, but about basic necessities like food and water.
Marie Paul, a doctor founder of the Haitian Nurses Network, said she is flying to Haiti with nine other health professionals next week.
“We get a lot of emails that they are in need of doctors and nurses and everyone that can do anything at all,” Paul said. “We need some way to get there, although we are very low on funding. I’m willing to put it on my own credit cards to do this.”