JACMEL: Miles from capital, quake ruins city - AP

Miles from capital, quake ruins city
'Everything was taken from me except my life'

Updated: Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 5:12 AM MST
Published : Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 5:12 AM MST

About three-quarters of the homes in Jacmel's downtown were damaged. The neighborhood was one of the charms that drew foreigners to the old port town, once home to wealthy coffee merchants. Mansions that belonged to the merchants, and other buildings with French-inspired architecture, have been turned into shops for artisans, whose colorful crafts and paintings were popular with tourists.

It was difficult to say how many in this town of some 40,000 people were killed by the quake. Danny Pye, director of the children's home Joy in Hope, said initial estimates were about 3,000 dead.

PETER PRENGAMAN,Associated Press Writer
JACMEL, Haiti (AP) - This coastal city normally would be gearing up for its raucous Carnival festival, with celebrants in brightly decorated masks dancing in the streets and the air filled with joyous song.

Instead, the streets are plugged with rubble, the air heavy with the stench of the dead. And the only melody is a mournful tune strummed by Gabriel Mollet.

The unemployed Mollet played guitar amid the ruins on a downtown street Sunday, huddled with a few friends as they pondered their fate and the future of this once graceful city that hoped to greet tourists for the pre-Lenten season.

Mollet, 31, said the earthquake left little behind.

"Everything was taken from me except my life," he said.

All around him were crumbled houses. Nearby, rescue workers from Colombia dug through a jumble of concrete, steel poles and splintered wood, searching for survivors. Though Jacmel wasn't hit as hard as parts of the capital 20 miles away, the situation here is dire.

The main road to Port-au-Prince, normally a three-hour drive to the northeast on a twisting road, is blocked by debris, meaning food can only be brought in by air or atop motorcycles able to wind their way through. Rescue crews were unable to bring in the heavy machinery they need to search for victims amid the rubble.

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