美国国家公共电台 NPR How Many Houses Did Hurricane Leave Standing In Port Salut, Haiti?

How Many Houses Did Hurricane Leave Standing¹ In Port Salut, Haiti?

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Authorities in Haiti are making painful decisions. They're making choices about who gets assistance first after a hurricane. The United Nations says 1.4 million people need help. Hundreds of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from Port-Salut on Haiti's south coast.

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE³: The Dumont section of Port-Salut is spread over rolling, green hills that used to be rich with coconut⁴, mango and banana trees, but hurricane Matthew toppled most of those trees. It also tore apart the simple cement and sheet metal houses in the area. Emmanuello Charlien is part of a team trying to tally⁵ the damage of Matthew here. Walking through a dirt road strewn with palm fronds⁶, he points out a pile of metal that used to be a cellphone tower.

EMMANUELLO CHARLIEN: (Through interpreter) Natcom, which is a cellphone company, used to have a tower right there, and the tower fell on someone's house. And it even, like, set a fire right after this.

BEAUBIEN: Charlien cuts off the main road onto a small path. Trunks of fallen palm trees block the trail, and he has to scramble⁷ up and over them. He walks up to a pile of smashed cement with a few timbers sticking out of it.

CHARLIEN: So this is a destroyed hose. This is another one. And they've built a shelter here to stay. You can see.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Using, like, the palm - palm leaves. They just use, like, some of the material from the existing house and build the shelter.

BEAUBIEN: Charlien is 1 of about 200 volunteers who've been pulled together by the mayor's office to conduct this census⁸ of the destruction across Port-Salut.

CHARLIEN: (Through interpreter) So the investigation⁹ focus is really on how many houses are totally down and how many of them, like, can be fixed¹⁰.

BEAUBIEN: In this section of the municipality, there are supposed to be 350 houses, and so far this crew of volunteers has only found three that survived the hurricane intact. Charlien is a 23-year-old law student at the university in Port-Salut. He says this survey should help the local authorities decide where to first distribute food and water.

And longer term, it should help officials figure out how to rebuild this community. Given that most of the people here simply don't have the resources to rebuild on their own, Charlien says the money for reconstruction¹¹ is going to have to come either from the national government or abroad.

CHARLIEN: (Through interpreter) It happens that the Haitian government have, like, the goodwill¹² to help its people, but between, like, the means and the actual resources, like, to make it happen, that's two different stories.

BEAUBIEN: The mayor of Port-Salut, Wilson Dena Marie, agrees that there's no way these communities can rebuild quickly on their own, but he doesn't want to see a repeat of the international relief effort that followed the 2010 earthquake. He says non-governmental agencies or NGOs came in and distributed whatever they wanted, built whatever they pleased, regardless of whether it was what the local community really needed. The mayor says it has to be different this time.

WILSON DENA MARIE: (Through interpreter) Everything has to go to the municipality because if you, as an NGO, just show up, like, with aid and start, like, giving it away, you might not find ways, like, to address the people who would need the aid the most.

BEAUBIEN: He wants to build entirely¹³ new villages with piped water, sewers¹⁴ and electricity for everyone. But in the short term, the mayor says, his biggest challenge is getting clean water for residents right now. A lot of people currently are getting their water from rivers and streams. There's only one road through the hurricane destruction to Port-Salut. The mayor recently tried to ship in a truckload of water, but it was looted.

MARIE: (Through interpreter) But it's been attacked, and people have just got, like, all the water on the way. And I didn't get a chance, like, to bring the water to Port-Salut.

BEAUBIEN: So while he's trying to figure out how best to get aid to his people and while the mayor has grand visions for what he'd like to see his city look like in the future, the challenges of carrying those out remain huge. Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Port-Salut.

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 coconut   

n.椰子

参考例句：

• The husk of this coconut is particularly strong.椰子的外壳很明显非常坚固。
• The falling coconut gave him a terrific bang on the head.那只掉下的椰子砰地击中他的脑袋。

5 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

6 fronds   

n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You can pleat palm fronds to make huts, umbrellas and baskets. 人们可以把棕榈叶折叠起来盖棚屋，制伞，编篮子。 来自百科语句
• When these breezes reached the platform the palm-fronds would whisper. 微风吹到平台时，棕榈叶片发出簌簌的低吟。 来自辞典例句

7 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

8 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

9 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

10 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

11 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

12 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

13 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

14 sewers   

n.阴沟，污水管，下水道( sewer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sewers discharge out at sea. 下水道的污水排入海里。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Another municipal waste problem is street runoff into storm sewers. 有关都市废水的另外一个问题是进入雨水沟的街道雨水。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法