All of the weekend papers dealt with the relief efforts in the Southwest in the aftermath of last week?s disastrous floods. Jimani and the surrounding areas were crowded with relief workers, soldiers, and bureaucrats, along with do-gooders who seemed to get in the way of the professional teams. The parish priest of Jimani, Jose Ramon de la Cruz, asked that anyone wishing to help send their donations directly to the centers set up to handle the aid contributions. He requested that people refrain from distributing their donations by themselves. The priest reported that in the town of Cabral some of the donations were being sold by people from other communities that came to Jimani to pick up the free stuff. According to the local priest, the community wants a small monument built over the communal grave where 109 bodies were interred. The community has also requested that three containment walls be built around what is left of the La Cuarenta section, in order to protect the rest of the town.
The cleric refuted the rumor that there was any broken dam in the area, and said he did not think it likely that the extraction of sand and gravel from the riverbed had had any effect on the flash flooding that occurred. He attributed the disaster instead to the deforestation of the mountainsides. For an explanation (in Spanish) of what caused the damages, see:
http://dr1.com/news/2004/053104_Jimani_disaster.html
Although the discovery of a survivor on Thursday was a bright moment for relief workers, they do not expect to find others, and say the death toll will reach 700 in the Jimani area alone. A group called Firemen without Frontiers has brought in medical supplies for the local hospital, as well as a mobile hospital and a water purifying unit. A detachment of French soldiers has set up 30 housing units for displaced survivors. Cesar Sanchez, the head of the CDEEE, has promised that the non-affected areas will have uninterrupted electricity around the clock for the duration of the emergency, and power lines are being set up for the camps and collection centers.
Of the 210 survivors of last week?s tragedy, nearly half remain in hospitals with serious wounds.
Officials from the Primary Care Department said that hospitals in Barahona, Neyba, Cabral and Duverge, as well as centers in Santo Domingo, were being used to treat the wounded. Other officials from the Ministry of Public Health warned of the contamination in the rivers and creeks of the area due to both human and animal remains buried there, either by the flood or by recovery workers. El Caribe announced that health officials would establish a ?cordon sanitaire? (quarantine line) around the Jimani limits upon the recommendation of Pan American Health Organization personnel. The plan calls for the cordoning off of the Jimani community itself, the vaccination of entire population of the area and its surroundings, and psychological assistance for the survivors, many of whom are children who lost parents and siblings.
As aid pours in, the paper is reporting that the distribution of the assistance packages is disorderly. Teuddy Sanchez and Franklyn Guerrero, writing for El Nacional, say that local community leaders are indicating that the disbursal process is a bit chaotic and have reaffirmed the statements made by Father de la Cruz. AMET traffic agents had to be put into action to control the unusual flow of traffic in the small city on the Haitian border.
Headlines today and yesterday reflect the incredible amount of assistance pouring into one of the areas least capable of absorbing it. The headline in El Caribe shouted: Help Overflows. And the difficulties facing aid workers is emphasized in today?s Diario Libre headline, which says that the chaos is hampering the distribution of the assistance to the victims. Planeloads of disaster relief supplies have come from Spain, Panama, Venezuela and Chile, in addition to the mercy flights from United States cities organized by private individuals and community organizations. According to the Diario Libre, the main problem is the influx of people from neighboring cities and towns looking to take advantage of the abundance of assistance that is pouring into Jimani.
El Nacional tells of the tremor that hit the vicinity of Jimani yesterday, measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale but felt by very few people as most were too busy or outdoors. No casualties of the quake were reported in the area.