A First Look as Haiti Emerges from Hurricane Matthew

BY   Kristin Romey    PUB   The National Geographic [perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]As the category 4 storm barrels north across the Caribbean, photographs show the destruction in its wake.[/perfectpullquote]
Days after Hurricane Matthew pummeled Haiti with 145 mile-per-hour winds and drenching rain, local authorities say that the full scope of the disaster is still unclear. (See dramatic lightning sprites dance over Hurricane Matthew.)

What is already evident, however, is that the Category 4 hurricane, which struck Haiti on October 4, has leveled another blow of destruction on an island nation still reeling from the 2010 earthquake and a subsequent cholera crisis.

“Haiti was already struggling, so it doesn’t have a lot of capacity to respond to the hurricane,” says Andrew McConnell, a photojournalist who is on the scene. “Yet it may take the brunt of it.”

Haitian officials have reported more than one hundred deaths so far, yet little information has emerged from the southern department of Grand-Anse, near the point where Matthew made landfall. Communications in Grand-Anse have been knocked out, and roads in the area remain impassible, according to the Associated Press. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″]

Residents in the Haitian coastal commune of Leogane, 18 miles west of Port-au-Prince, survey homes damaged by fallen trees after Hurricane Matthew swept through the area. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW MCCONNELL, PANOS FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

The bridge over the La Digue River served as a critical connection between the capital and the worst-hit southwestern peninsula of the island. It collapsed during the Category-4 hurricane. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW MCCONNELL, PANOS FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Hatians negotiate the damage left behind by Hurricane Matthew, making their way across the La Digue River after a critical bridge collapsed in the storm. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW MCCONNELL, PANOS FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Lumis Sayafey, 60, stands in front of her flooded home in Leogane, 18 miles west of Port-au-Prince. Compared to the destruction in the southern part of the country, the area around the capital escaped major damage. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW MCCONNELL, PANOS FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Hurricane Matthew’s 145-mile-per-hour winds and lashing rains carved away large parts of the banks of Haiti’s La Digue River. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW MCCONNELL, PANOS FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

With the bridge gone, residents of Petit Goave attempt to ford the La Digue River. Emergency responders are still unable to reach Haiti’s stricken southwestern peninsula. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW MCCONNELL, PANOS FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC