Haitian-Americans mark 1st year since earthquake

MIAMI — Grief and pride are painted into a colorful new mural, unveiled for Wednesday's anniversary of Haiti's massive earthquake, wrapping a prominent corner in this city's Little Haiti neighborhood.

The presidential palace and hillside homes of Haiti's capital stand firm and uncracked, but the images are from the past. The mural's artists painted tears running down the solemn faces of Haiti's revolutionary heroes, a presidential-appearing hip hop star Wyclef Jean and a young girl stitching together the red and blue fields of Haiti's flag.

"Even the sky is very sad today," said Dr. Suzie Armas, emerging from a morning Mass at nearby Notre Dame d'Haiti to damp, gray clouds. "This is the same way the Haitian community has been feeling. Unfortunately, there has not been that much progress."

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck on Jan. 12, 2010, killing more than 230,000 people. Roughly a million remain homeless amid the debris and stuttering reconstruction efforts in Port-au-Prince.

At the National Press Club in Washington, American Red Cross President and CEO Gail McGovern said the charity will spend $30 million in a partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development to build homes at two locations in the Caribbean nation, plus another $15 million to construct homes with the Inter-American Development Bank on land identified by Haiti's government.

A plan to distribute $40 million in cash assistance to Haitians living in camps was halted in October, she said, because Haiti's government said it would encourage families to remain in the camps. The money was reallocated to cash-for-work programs, school vouchers and relocation grants.

The bells at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., were set to toll 35 times at the start of a memorial Mass on Wednesday afternoon, as a reminder of the 35-second quake.

A moment of silence at 4:53 p.m. — the moment the quake struck — followed the Haitian and American national anthems in a North Miami municipal plaza. At the same time, a larger crowd of Haitian Americans with Haitian flags blocked traffic at a stature of Toussaint Louverture in Miami's Little Haiti.

In New York's Times Square, a crowd carried signs saying "Remove the Rubble Now" and "Give the Haitian people jobs." Participants then marched to the Haitian Consulate and planned a rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the United Nations, capped by a moment of silence of their own.