The Hurricanes in Haiti: Disaster and Recovery Hearing
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THE HURRICANES IN HAITI: DISASTER AND RECOVERY HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 Serial No. 110–227 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 44–543PDF WASHINGTON : 2008 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOWARD L. BERMAN, California, Chairman GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey Samoa DAN BURTON, Indiana DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ELTON GALLEGLY, California BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California ROBERT WEXLER, Florida DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts STEVE CHABOT, Ohio GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado DIANE E. WATSON, California RON PAUL, Texas ADAM SMITH, Washington JEFF FLAKE, Arizona RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri MIKE PENCE, Indiana JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee JOE WILSON, South Carolina GENE GREEN, Texas JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas CONNIE MACK, Florida RUBE´ N HINOJOSA, Texas JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas DAVID WU, Oregon TED POE, Texas BRAD MILLER, North Carolina BOB INGLIS, South Carolina LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ, California LUIS G. FORTUN˜ O, Puerto Rico DAVID SCOTT, Georgia GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida JIM COSTA, California VACANT ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona RON KLEIN, Florida BARBARA LEE, California ROBERT R. KING, Staff Director YLEEM POBLETE, Republican Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ, California CONNIE MACK, Florida ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey, MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas Vice Chair LUIS G. FORTUN˜ O, Puerto Rico GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ENI F. H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American ELTON GALLEGLY, California Samoa RON PAUL, Texas DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey VACANT BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts RON KLEIN, Florida GENE GREEN, Texas JASON STEINBAUM, Subcommittee Staff Director ERIC JACOBSTEIN, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member MARK WALKER, Republican Professional Staff Member JULIE SCHOENTHALER, Staff Associate (II) C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Maxine Waters, a Representative in Congress from the State of California .......................................................................................................... 6 The Honorable Alcee L. Hastings, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida ..................................................................................................... 9 The Honorable Barbara Lee, a Representative in Congress from the State of California .......................................................................................................... 13 The Honorable Kendrick B. Meek, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida ..................................................................................................... 17 The Honorable Yvette D. Clarke, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York ................................................................................................ 20 The Honorable Donna F. Edwards, a Representative in Congress from the State of Maryland ................................................................................................ 25 Ms. Kirsten D. Madison, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State ................................................. 33 Mr. Jose´ R. Ca´rdenas, Acting Assistant Administrator, Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, U.S. Agency for International Development ..................... 36 Rear Admiral Joseph D. Kernan, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, U.S. 4th Fleet .................................................................................... 40 Mathieu Eugene, Ph.D., Member, New York City Council .................................. 60 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Eliot L. Engel, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York, and Chairman, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere: Prepared statement .............................................................................................. 3 The Honorable Albio Sires, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey: Prepared statement .................................................................... 6 The Honorable Maxine Waters: Prepared statement ........................................... 8 The Honorable Alcee L. Hastings: Prepared statement ....................................... 11 The Honorable Barbara Lee: Prepared statement ................................................ 15 The Honorable Kendrick B. Meek: Prepared statement ...................................... 18 The Honorable Yvette D. Clarke: Prepared statement ......................................... 21 The Honorable Donna F. Edwards: Prepared statement ..................................... 27 Ms. Kirsten D. Madison: Prepared statement ....................................................... 35 Mr. Jose´ R. Ca´rdenas: Prepared statement ........................................................... 37 Rear Admiral Joseph D. Kernan: Prepared statement ......................................... 42 The Honorable Dan Burton, a Representative in Congress from the State of Indiana: Prepared statement .......................................................................... 59 Mathieu Eugene, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ........................................................ 62 APPENDIX Material Submitted for the Hearing Record .......................................................... 67 (III) THE HURRICANES IN HAITI: DISASTER AND RECOVERY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2008 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:11 a.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Eliot L. Engel (chair- man) presiding. Mr. ENGEL. Good morning. A quorum being present, since Mr. Delahunt and I are very important, the Subcommittee on the West- ern Hemisphere of the Foreign Affairs Committee will come to order. I am told Mr. Burton will be a little bit late. We are going to begin before he comes, which he has agreed to. I am pleased to welcome everyone to today’s hearing on the ‘‘Hurricanes in Haiti: Disaster and Recovery.’’ This is an emergency hearing. Some of our colleagues who have just come back from Haiti have spoken with me, and we all put our heads together and thought that this would be a good time to do this hearing to, hope- fully, try to put a little pressure on the Congress and other powers that be that we need more aid for Haiti, and we need it now. This has, obviously, been an extraordinarily difficult year for Haiti, from food riots to a lengthy inability to select a Prime Min- ister and, most recently, to the devastation by four hurricanes and tropical storms: Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike. Haiti deserves a break, to say the least. The devastation from these storms has been massive. To date, more than 420 people have been killed by the storms and flooding, more than 10,000 dwellings have been destroyed, and more than 151,000 people have been displaced from their homes. Eight agen- cies in Haiti are warning of severe outbreaks of disease as thou- sands of people remain in squalid, cramped shelters. Relief workers in Gonaives, which was hit the hardest by the storms, have struggled to reach thousands of people who fled to higher ground. Because the hurricanes brought down bridges, 30 percent of that town remains inaccessible, making approach only possible by helicopter and boat. Houses there which were not de- stroyed by the wind, rains, and flooding were swamped under two to three feet of mud. In several regions, agriculture has been left in ruins, leaving hundreds of thousands in need of food, water, emergency housing, and health services for at least the next 6 months. (1) 2 The disaster has compounded an already difficult situation for the new government of Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis and further demonstrated the fragility of Haiti’s physical and social in- frastructure. According to the U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti, Hedi Annabi: ‘‘This is a humanitarian catastrophe of a scale that is beyond the capacity of the government or of the United Nations sta- bilization mission here. It requires an exceptional effort from bilateral donors, from those countries in the region or beyond that have the kinds of assets that are required to deal with such an emergency.’’ Even before the most recent emergency, the United States al- ready had a very large aid program in Haiti. This year alone, we are providing more than $270 million in assistance, including $45 million in food aid, in response to the crisis earlier in the year. However, given the scale of the recent calamity, it is obvious that more help is now urgently needed. The U.S. is now delivering al- most $30 million