As an easterner, Sgt. Dan Gaudet had been through a couple of hurricanes in his day, but those storms didn't compare with what he experienced when Hurricane Matthew pummelled the coastal town of Jérémie, Haiti, where he was stationed.
On Oct. 4, 2016, Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti, devastating coastal areas in the northwest, southwest and south.
At the time, there was a contingent of 90 Canadian police officers stationed across the country as part of MINUSTAH, a United Nations (UN) mission to support the operations and development of the Haitian National Police (HNP).
Unlike the earthquake that struck the country in 2010, the UN and Canadian contingent had a few days warning to prepare for the Category 4 hurricane.
Bracing for impact
Sgt. Rock Brunet with RCMP International Operations and Policing Development (IOPD) unit co-ordinated the mission from the operations desk in Ottawa. As soon as he heard that a large hurricane had formed in the Caribbean and was on track to hit Haiti, he did two things.
First, he referred to the RCMP's International Liaison Deployment Centre's critical incident plan (CIP), a guide of what to do in an emergency as IOPD oversees the deployment of Canadian police officers around the world.
"If there's ever a major event that takes place where we have our people, the CIP is the bible," says Brunet. "We follow it step by step, whether it's a terror attack, a political coup or a natural disaster.
Second, he sought advice from his co-workers who were working when the earthquake hit. He was told that good communication is critical.
"Hurricanes are unpredictable," says Brunet. "It was difficult for us to know where it was actually going to hit. This period leading up to it, we prepared for the worst and hoped for the best."
Brunet was the liaison between Port-au-Prince and the partner agencies the police officers worked for. He was in constant contact with the contingent commander, RCMP Insp. Lucie Dubois. Together they followed the CIP and were keeping the partner agencies and the officers' families informed.
While the UN was responsible for its police officers and any decisions about evacuation or lockdown, Dubois made sure her contingent had good communication, knew what to do and had what they needed.
"We had a system in place where everybody had to report in regularly, so I knew exactly where my Canadians were at all times and how they were," says Dubois.
She was also in communication with the UN operations centre and the chiefs of police for each police detachment in Haiti where Canadians were assigned.
Back in Jérémie, the mission was focused on preparations for the upcoming election, but Gaudet was also focusing on the approaching hurricane. He was in contact with Dubois in Port-au-Prince and his family and friends back home.
Gaudet, along with the other two Canadian and two American police officers who shared the same house, began emergency preparations. They gathered enough food and drinking water to last 48 to 72 hours, cleaned up the yard, stocked up on fuel to run the generator, charged their laptops and cellphones, replaced all the batteries in their flashlights and made sure the town's only satellite phone worked.
And then they waited.
Weathering the storm
"Everything was at a standstill as we waited for the hurricane to go by," says Dubois. "Canadians were spread all over the country so everyone had a different reality."
The UN had ordered a lockdown, which meant police officers were to remain in their own shelters for the duration of the storm. Brunet felt confident they were safe because people in mission live in homes with the best construction of what's available.
Port-au-Prince was spared from the worst of the damage. Dubois had constant communication with Brunet in Ottawa and all of the regions in Haiti — except for Jérémie.
"I was worried, and it wasn't just the Canadians I was worried about, it was all our colleagues and the population," says Dubois. "The population is just so vulnerable that your heart is just being split in different ways."
As the storm intensified, Gaudet says he could see roofs being torn from houses and debris flying, but then the rain and sustained winds of 240 kilometres an hour made it so he couldn't see much of anything. "It almost looked like a snowstorm between the rain and debris," says Gaudet.
Water was pouring into the house and they could hear the solar panels fly off the roof. And at one point, the full water tanks on the roof were also ripped off.
After several hours, the winds died down as the eye of the hurricane settled over the area. Gaudet and the others went outside to assess the damage.
"You look around and everything is destroyed," says Gaudet. "But people were walking around like it's over. I was trying to tell them they needed to get back to their homes. Then the wind picked up and changed direction and it really started to rain."
The storm raged for several more hours before subsiding.
In Port-au-Prince and Ottawa, Dubois and Brunet began to figure out what equipment and supplies people needed.
Brunet was also looking into the possibility of post-traumatic stress, and potential infections, diseases and exposure to mould if homes were flooded.
"It became a matter of before we can care for others in the community, let's care for our people and make sure they're healthy so they can help others."
And they were still anxiously waiting for word from Jérémie.
It took several hours, but Gaudet was finally able to make a quick 10-second call using the satellite phone.
"Everybody breathed a sigh of relief when it was done because there were no Canadian police officer or UN police officer casualties," says Brunet. "They were safe on the ground."
But the challenges were just beginning.
Post-hurricane
"We made it through the storm, which was bad enough," says Gaudet. "But what I hadn't realized was that was the easy part. The hard part was yet to come — the aftermath."
In Jérémie, they organized a foot patrol the day after the storm as roads were impassable.
"We're walking and we're in the middle of the street and there were a couple of guys there," says Gaudet. "We asked, 'Where's your house?' And they said, "You're standing on it.' People were in despair."
On the second day, Gaudet says the HNP and civilians made a plan to start clearing the road to the airport using chainsaws. "With a joint effort we had the 7-km stretch of road cleared by 6 a.m. on day three. That's basically when the first choppers landed so we could get some help."
NGOs, the UN, the U.S. military and helicopter after helicopter of food and supplies began flooding in, says Gaudet. And they had limited resources to manage it as the town was destroyed. There was no place to set up or house people.
"It was a logistical nightmare," says Gaudet. "We would get together daily to strategize. We realized quickly that security was key."
As humanitarian aid trucks were coming in loaded with supplies, desperate local residents would attack the convoys and loot them.
The hurricane caused the mission to switch to a humanitarian one overnight.
As of the end of January, Gaudet says the power has been partially restored in Jérémie as the infrastructure is still heavily damaged. Generators continue to provide power to businesses and some residences and the rebuilding process is slowly underway.
The UN reports that while the number of Haitians facing hunger has steadily declined since the hurricane, 1.5 million people are still food insecure.
Pre-hurricane, Gaudet's job was co-location with the HNP, going out on patrols with them and supporting investigations. Post-hurricane, he says that 90 per cent of his focus involves the safety and security of humanitarian aid convoys.
"Our people go in mission understanding their job can change in a moment's notice depending what the needs are on the ground," says Brunet.
And in the days and months after the storm, Canadian police officers helped in whatever way they could.
"They just got back on their feet and worked really hard," says Dubois. "Some areas were hit harder than others, but they did a great job everywhere."