Thousands in Haiti without food, water, shelter after Hurricane Matthew's devastation
JEREMIE, Haiti -- More than a week after Matthew rampaged across Haiti, Elise Adette still has no idea if her family is alive.
She and her three-year-old daughter have been staying with neighbors waiting for word about her parents and brother.
Jeremie was devastated. Eighty percent of the city’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
Jeff Jeanty had nowhere to go when the storm hit.
“The first house, the roof was lift. I called them, come in here, come in here. Then they come in,” Jeanty said.
Celise Alize and her three children survived after the roof of their house collapsed in the 145 mph winds.
She didn’t have much before the storm. Now, she has even less. Breadfruit is all they have to eat right now.
Power is still out, water and food are scare. Many roads are still impassable and the grim task of counting the dead has only begun.
The U.S. military is trying to get much needed relief to the hardest hit areas.
“This is an opportunity to make a difference for someone else, it’s really a complex evolution where we are bringing in a lot of pieces of heavy equipment but we are bringing it in to do good,” said Rear Admiral Cedric Pringle.
But the biggest fear is a return of cholera.
Adette said after a catastrophe like this “worse things can come, people will get sick, they’re exposed to cholera and fever.”
The last cholera outbreak in Haiti killed at least 10,000 people and sickened hundreds of thousands. Doctors Without Borders is reporting that they have already treated 39 cases of the disease.
