Spoke Ianthe Jeanne Dugan, WSJ, at Port-au-Prince for her second visit, and she reported that the conditions remain primitive and fragile for the survivors. The rains are coming. The survivors cast their eyes at the thunderstorm clouds to sea and worry for the downpours they know are coming as soon as April. There is no substantial or organized tent city yet. There is no sign of major construction for the shelters that will be necessary when the rains create rivers of mud. Dugan reported the missionaries released -- she was at the media mob scene -- though this story changes nothing for the survivors. There is a rudimentary program that will band together apparel manufacturers such as Gap to produce clothing in rebuilt factories. Ianthe Jeanne Dugan reports that the faces are brighter and happier, not gloomy and dire as in January -- the perpetual cheerfulness of the Haitian people. Still, the rains approach, and the mud seas, and there must be action to cobble together living conditions for hundreds of thousands who yet live in the open -- under tarps or plastic or whatever is at hand.


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