haitian people’s heavy crosses

currently, t.v. news about the new covid surge as well as the disaster in afghanistan has dominated discussion.

but i have been thinking about the people of haiti. the earthquake on august 14th was even stronger than the one one 2010. the number of deaths and injured will climb; we will never get the actual numbers. a tropical storm– ironically named “grace”– has made things worse. so, my tears and prayer this morning has been focused on the suffering so many haitian people at this very moment.

is this old news after one week?

here are some scenes from the town of les cayes. there is one hospital for the 71,000+ residents there. there are injured and dead bodies strewn in the streets, in the rubble. it is beyond imagination how many people in the smaller towns are experiencing similar situations.

( pictures from https://www.thedailybeast.com/haiti-struggles-to-dig-out-after-earthquake-and-flooding?ref=scroll )

back in 2010, a 7.0 earthquake hit haiti. the result: 250,000+ people died; over a million people were left homeless. will this earthquake’s aftermath ultimately kill more people?

can you imagine if a 7.2 earthquake followed up with a tropical storm hit a city like vancouver, berlin, or london? how different would our collective responses be?

is it “out of sight, out of mind” for us? will we care?