In Haiti, hopes dim for missing victims of Hurricane Matthew

PORT-A-PIMENT, Haiti — Nobody has seen or heard from Edma Desravine, a 71-year-old grandfather known for his sly sense of humor and bad luck at cock fights, in the roughly 2½ weeks since Hurricane Matthew sent floodwaters and debris crashing into his riverside shantytown.

With Haiti’s interim government taking the lead in directing relief efforts, there were no boats reaching cut-off coastal towns for days, dive crews or teams with trained search dogs looking for the missing and the dead.

The U.N. stabilization mission, the U.S. government’s disaster assistance response team and numerous nongovernmental organizations all said they never received any specific request from Haiti to help locate the missing amid the ongoing effort to ferry emergency food, water and medical supplies.

Government personnel and an army of international aid workers are delivering more relief supplies to people, but local authorities in southwest Haiti say it is falling short of meeting desperate needs.

Exasperated local officials said that with no heavy equipment to move debris or other resources, they were virtually powerless to help frantic relatives searching for loved ones or care for the injured.