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Haitian Town Rebuilds After Hurricane

In the Haitian town of Camp Perrin this week, Fanesse Saintsur was taking apart a section of roofing that flew off the store where he works, rafters and all.

People say sheets of metal roofing were flying around like planes during the long hours it took Hurricane Matthew to pass through the area.

Saintsur was taking the roof apart to salvage what he could and put it back together, doing for his employer what he could not do for himself.

"My whole house is gone," he said. "The cinder blocks were crushed. Matthew took the roof. We're all outside."

Credit Rowan Moore Gerety / WLRN
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WLRN
Renette Bazile walked through the streets of Camp Perrin wearing a campaign T-shirt for a local candidate for parliament. Haiti was set to hold a long-delayed election just days after Hurricane Matthew devastated the southern peninsula. Now that election has been delayed. "We'll wait for them to give us a date," she said. "It's up to the foreigners to give us a date."

Saintsur came back home to Camp Perrin from the capital in 2010 after several of his family members died in the earthquake. Now he is one of dozens of people sleeping on the floor of Camp Perrin's police station.

"I'm a mason," he said. "The reason I haven't started building my house again yet is that I don't have the money to buy any materials. My children aren't back in school yet. ... I've taken a lot of blows."

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