I had just finished speaking at a “Gentlemen’s Gathering” in beautiful Edwards, CO when I got a text from Mercy Corps. “A hurricane is about to hit Haiti–can you get down there?” Ironically, and knowing nothing of the hurricane, I had that very day told a few of the guys that I wasn’t sure if I was going to take a few weeks off (as I’d hoped) or if someone would eventually call me to go shoot somewhere (after all, I make a living by getting on planes!). One answered, jokingly, “all you need is a disaster to hit.” Well…unfortunately for the people of Haiti, that was exactly what happened. And when I got the text, I had my answer. I went home and packed.
The next morning I was off with the first responder team from Mercy Corps, one of the very first people from the outside in to Haiti to see what had actually happened. In the communities of Petit-Riviere-de-Nippes, L’Anse-a-Veau and Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc on rural and coastal communities, blowing over crops, flooding fields and homes, and making life otherwise miserable for many. USA Today picked up some of the photos and ran them both in the print edition and online:
In terms of natural disasters, this one packed plenty of wallop, but thankfully the damage was fairly localized and not nearly as widespread as it could have been. Still, Matthew affected thousands of families in Haiti and beyond. In fact, I am back in Haiti four-weeks after the hurricane, typing this blog post. More photos below:
