Hurricane Matthew killed more than 500 people in Haiti when it struck two weeks ago, leaving more than 175,000 without homes, and more than a million more struggling to survive in what United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called "absolute devastation." The UN estimates at least 1.4 million Haitians are now in need of urgent assistance as clean water, food, and medicine are in short supply, and an ongoing cholera epidemic threatens to worsen and spread after dozens of cholera treatment centers were destroyed.
A Humanitarian Crisis in Haiti After Hurricane Matthew
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Hurricane Matthew victims wait the start of a delivery of food from the UN's World Food Program in the commune of Maniche, in Les Cayes, in the southwest of Haiti, on October 17, 2016. #
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Coconut palms toppled by Hurricane Matthew lay in the countryside near Jeremie, southwestern Haiti, on October 14, 2016. Re-planting vegetable crops can be done relatively quickly and rice fields begin to recover as floodwaters recede, but the loss of mature fruit trees that families nurtured for a generation is a staggering blow. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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Children play with a damaged fishing boat on a heavily polluted waterfront in the Philanthrope neighborhood of Les Cayes, Haiti, on October 17, 2016. Many houses in the seaside fishing community lost their roofs and others were completely destroyed. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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Hurricane Matthew victims cover themselves from the rain while waiting for the start of delivery of food from the UN's World Food Program in the commune of Maniche, in Les Cayes, on October 17, 2016. #
Hector Retamal / AFP / Getty -
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The remains of a destroyed home lay in southwestern Haiti on October 14, 2016. A week and a half after Hurricane Matthew devastated the region, aid is slowly starting to arrive in rural towns, patch-work roofs made from scraps abound, and some families are living in makeshift shelters crafted from the debris. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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Town residents gather to watch as U.S. military personnel unload USAID relief supplies from a helicopter in Anse d'Hainault on October 14, 2016. Two U.S. military helicopters touched down briefly on Friday morning to deliver drinking water and saline to the remote town, which has seen a spike in cholera cases after suffering severe damage from Hurricane Matthew. #
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Security closes the gate on people trying to enter a yard where food distribution was to take place, in Maniche, Haiti, on October 17, 2016. Tensions were rising here when the food delivery still had not arrived. People said they had been told the distribution would be the day before, and some had walked six hours and then had to wait overnight, while others had spent their last money on public transport to arrive. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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A U.N. peacekeeper from Senegal fires tear gas in front of a truck carrying food aid, as troops clash with rock-throwing neighborhood residents outside a U.N. base in Les Cayes, Haiti, on October 15, 2016. Residents said clashes with the peacekeepers began when trucks carrying food aid arrived at the base. #
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A youth hides his face from the sting of tear gas as U.N. troops clash with rock-throwing neighborhood residents outside a U.N. base in Les Cayes on October 15, 2016. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
Workers assemble kits consisting of a bucket, laundry soap, and women's sanitary napkins as part of a health-centered aid shipment for delivery to a rural mountain community, at a warehouse on the outskirts of Les Cayes on October 16, 2016. Global Medic working with local organization ADRA was sending trucks from Les Cayes to two communities on Sunday, bringing water purification systems, toothbrushes, soap, rice, oil, beans, and sugar to needy residents. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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A young man sleeps on school benches pushed together in Philippe Guerrier High School, which is serving as a shelter for people whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Matthew, in Les Cayes on October 17, 2016. School officials have told the more than one hundred people sheltering there that they will have to leave to allow classes to begin again, but those who lost their homes say they have no other shelter to go to. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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A little girl peers in to a darkened classroom where people whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Matthew were sleeping, at Philippe Guerrier High School in Les Cayes on October 17, 2016. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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Women wash clothes in a canal while children splash into the water on October 14, 2016 in a small village near Les Cayes, Haiti. After the hurricane, clean drinking water is scarce. The people have to be supplied with clean drinking water and sanitation services have to be repaired. Wells and toilets were destroyed by hurricane Matthew. The water is polluted and there is a great danger that diseases such as cholera can break out. #
Thomas Lohnes / Getty -
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