Reaction. But first, the death toll in haiti from Hurricane Matthew that continues to rise. More than 330 bodies have been discovered so far as waters recede from the most powerful storm to hit the caribbean in a decade. We will speak with haitianamerican novelist Edwidge Danticat. We will look at how the medias nonstop coverage of the storm has failed to address the role of Climate Change. Then, a serial killer of women goes to jail this week after a tip from a murder victims mother listening to democracy now there are those who would say that justice delayed is justice denied. I think we have now demonstrated that that is not always the case. Thatss my only regret is this could have happened 53 years ago, maybe there would have only been one victim. Amy we will speak with Jerry Mitchell, the johnson advocate reporter who broke the cold case and with mary rose, the mother of Annette Craver vail, one of the murder victims. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The death toll is continuing to rise in haiti after the massive category 4 Hurricane Matthew hit the island over the weekend. More than 330 bodies have been discovered so far as the waters recede. Hurricane matthew was the most powerful storm to hit the caribbean in a decade. Across the country, 15,000 people have been displaced and 350,000 more are in need of assistance. The storm knocked out most electricity and phone Service Across haiti. It also washed out a major bridge connecting southern haiti to the rest of the country. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and still recovering from the devastating earthquake six years ago that left more than 300,000 dead and in twice as many displaced. We will have more on haiti after headlines with Edwidge Danticat. Hurricane matthew is now bearing down on the florida coast. The Tropical Storms wind gusts of 107 Miles Per Hour and torrential downpours have already knocked out power for 300,000 people. Meteorologists are warning of devastating storm surges. One wave 17 feet high has already been spotted off the coast near cape canaveral. President obama has declared a state of emergency for florida, georgia and South Carolina. , Florida Governor rick scott has activated the 3500 members of the national guard. Scott also urged residents living in mandatory evacuation zones to flee, warning this storm will kill you. More than 3 Million People in florida, georgia, and South Carolina are under evacuation orders. Well go to florida for more on the latest on Hurricane Matthew later in the broadcast. Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has been chosen to receive this years Nobel Peace Prize for his role in pursuing a peace deal to end the nations 52yearold civil war. The move comes as a surprise after colombians rejected the peace deal just this past sunday in a nationwide referendum. Therc leader did not win Nobel Peace Prize. The conflict between the colombian government and the farc began in 1964 and claimed some 220,000 lives. More than 5 Million People are estimated to have been displaced. Last year, the Colombian Army was accused of a longrunning scandal of extrajudicially killing unarmed civilians and identifying them as farc rebels in order to pretrade the government as winning the war against the farc. President santos top military generals were accused of being implicated in the socalled false positive scandal. We will go to colombia for more on the Nobel Peace Prize announcement later in the broadcast. The United Nations special envoy for syria, Staffan De Mistura, is warning the entirety of eastern aleppo could be destroyed by christmas if the ongoing Bombing Campaign by russia and the Syrian Government is not stopped. In a speech in geneva, he called on russia and the Syrian Government to stop the airstres. The eyes of the world and the , are you really ready to continue this type of level of fighting using that type of weapons and effective destroy de facto destroy the aleppo, agent city 275,000 people for the sake of eliminating go Staffan De Mistura also said hed personally accompany alnusra fighters out of the city if that would end russia and the Syrian Governments Bombing Campaign, which he warned could become another srebrenica, another rwanda. The Italian Coast Guard says it rescued a staggering 11,000 refugees trying to make the deadly crossing from libya into europe this week alone amid the greatest refugee crisis since world war ii. The coast guard says at least 50 people died in the crossing, including 20 who reportedly suffocated in the hold of a boat. An aid worker has compared the conditions in the cargo holds of the overcrowded fishing boats used to transport refugees to those of slave ships. This is the deputy mayor of the italian coastal town of pozzallo. From what i know, among the hims there was also a very unlucky pregnant women who lost her life. I think the death of these people is to be blamed on the terrible conditions there may to travel in. Amy the Justice Department has launched an investigation into the alabama prison system, amid a series of strikes by both prisoners and guards. The probe focuses on Living Conditions and physical and sexual abuse of prisoners. Alabama prisoners have been leaders in the organizing of the nationwide prison strike launched on september 9. On september 24, guards at the holman correctional facility in atmore, alabama, also went on strike, refusing to show up for Evening Shift amid safety concerns and overcrowding. To hear our interview with incarcerated organizer Kinetik Justice speaking from inside holman about the prison strike, go to democracynow. Org. President obama has commuted the sentences of 102 federal inmates, bringing his total number of commutations to 774. Many of the 102 prisoners have been serving life sentences on drugrelated charges. Their sentences will now end in october 2018. Activists in cities across the country gathered for two days of action wednesday and thursday to support bresha meadows, a 15yearold girl who allegedly killed her abusive father. Jonathan meadows, breshas father, reportedly made life for his family a living hell, routinely attacking his wife, breshas mother, breaking her ribs, puncturing her blood vessels, blackening her eyes, and slashing her body. Meadows now may face life in prison. This week, activists gathered for rallies and letter writing campaigns to support meadows in chicago, boston, los angeles, milwaukee, wisconsin, and warren, ohio, and up and down california, including in los angeles, davis and riverside. Organizers say meadows is currently on suicide watch. To see our coverage of the case, go to democracynow. Org. In north dakota, land defenders opposing the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline are facing increasing repression. On thursday, Morton County sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier announced he may call on Law Enforcement agencies from outside north dakota to come assist north dakota deputies, saying we have basically tapped the resources to a level that weve never seen here in north dakota for one particular incident. The announcement came as land defenders again shut down construction at multiple construction sites thursday. In recent weeks, police have begun deploying militarygrade equipment, including armored personnel carriers and surveillance helicopters. Meanwhile, the first person to lock himself to active Dakota Access pipeline Construction Equipment is now facing felony charges after his misdemeanor case was dismissed and then refiled as a felony case. Dale happi American Horse locked himself to an excavator on august 31, stopping construction for hours. Democracy now spoke to him a a few days later on september 3 as we visited the sacred stone encampment in north dakota. I could not stand by and watch this pipeline go through, get torn through the mother earth. It is a hard thing to stand by and watch. I could not take it anymore, so we used nonviolent direct action to delay them in any way for his long as possible. Amy in south africa, growing student protests against a proposed 8 tuition fee hike for 2017 have shut down classes at campuses across south africa this week. The Fees Must Fall Campaign is demanding free education. Its facing an increasing crackdown by police, who deployed stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas against , protesting students in johannesburg on tuesday. This is Wits University student leader fasiha hassan. We have just been opened fire with stun grenades, tear gas. Amy this comes as a nationwide teachers strike continues in belize for a fifth day. On thursday, the Teachers Union held demonstrations in multiple cities. Teachers are demanding a 3 salary increase, as well as anticorruption measures and workplace safety. In its from the campaign trail, one in four americans will not be up to vote in the president ial election as a result of state laws that prohibit people with helena convictions from voting, even after they have served their full sentences. He states in which the greatest percentage of people will not be able to vote are florida, mississippi, kentucky, and tennessee. In san francisco, the council on americanislamic relations has filed a complaint against Southwest Airlines with the transportation department, calling for an investigation into whether the Airline Company is racially profiling muslim americans. This comes after recent uc berkeley graduate, khairuldeen makhzoomi, was pulled off a southwest Airline Plane after another passenger complained about him speaking in arabic on his cell phone. The passenger claimed he was using words related to an attack. In fact, he was using the word inshallah, which means god willing or hopefully and is one of the most common words in the arabic language. Makhzoomi is an iraqi who has been living in the u. S. Since 2010. He says he was pulled off the plane and then interrogated by police officers. And in virginia, 23 people were arrest amid a threeday protest in front of Governor Terry mcauliffes mansion wednesday, demanding action to address Climate Change. The protesters are demanding mcauliffe reject two proposed fracked gas pipelines, force companies to clean up toxic coal ash ponds, and invest in renewable energy. The protest was organized by chesapeake Climate Action network. The activists were arrested after they blocked the doors to his mansion. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. We begin todays show in haiti, where the death toll from Hurricane Matthew continues to rise. More than 330 bodies have been discovered so far as waters recede from the most powerful storm to hit the caribbean in a decade. Across the country, some 15,000 have been displaced and 350,000 more are in need of assistance. The storm not out most electricity and phone Service Across the country and also washed out a major bridge connecting southern haiti to the rest of the country. Eight organizations are warning that food and water are scarce. Amy haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and still recovering from a devastating earthquake six years ago that left more than 300,000 dead and twice as many people displaced. For more, we are joined by haitianamerican novelist Edwidge Danticat. She is speaking to us from miami, florida. Her new piece for the new yorker is headined, facing Hurricane Matthew. Edwidge danticat, welcome back to democracy now from one hurricane target in florida to another, haiti, can you talk about what has happened in your home country in haiti . Good morning. Thank you so much for having me once again. What i understand and what the world is starting to the is that parts of haiti has been decimated. The images that were just show that inerday some towns, for example, Something Like 90 of the houses are either flattened or have lost their roofs. There was an enormous sea surge. The sea came in pretty far inland. That means a lot of agitation has been lost, a lot of farming it was close to harvest time, so that harvest is gone. Livestock for which people, especially people in rural areas, livestock is basic. So much of that is washed away. Xtreme devastation we started getting very low numbers in terms of the death toll because there was no access to these areas. And there are areas where there is still no access. It is a very dire, grave situation. Equal for some of the towns affected to the earthquake in 2010. Juan Edwidge Danticat, how has the government been able to cope given the fact haiti is still recovering from the earth take in 2010 and also from the cholera epidemic that is continued to rage there . I am not in haiti at the moment, but ive been following very closely on the radio. I think as in the case of 2010, perhaps even more so now, i think no government, least of all the haitian government which is a provisional government, is prepared for Something Like that fully. It was so much more drastic. Haiti has not been hit by a storm like this in decades. So i think, you know, to what i have seen, the first job has been to assess the damage. The interim president yesterday was able to do a flyover, i believe, with u. S. Coast guard to seeastation and the devastation. I think theres going to be a lot of ordination needed to reach the most remote areas. Unlike the earthquake, which was primarily in an urban area a much more easily accessible, now you have the devastation in some very remote areas that i fear it will take the government or others, International Partners were eight organizations local and international, it will take longer to get people who are desperate because for example, people in rural areas have a strong interconnection and sometimes really have to rely on themselves. The staple of their survival has been wiped away and it is hard to get to them. That is going to be, i think, the biggest challenge. Right now, billy way to get to whatareas to even assess is happening is by air and we do not have access to a lot of airplanes and helicopters and so forth. Where would they land in him cases . I think the first focus theyre looking on working on is the road to make this accessible so that people who are willing to help were able to help connection access those places and provide immediate need like food and water to try to get them to the next place where they can actually start to rebuild their lives. how does poverty affect intensify what has taken place . Something like 330 bodies have been found as the water rece des. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Well, it is going to aggravate the poverty extremely. It is going to get so much worse. This is not an immediate disaster. It is not a today disaster. It is going to become an ongoing disaster. The first thing that will be affected, certainly, you will have an increase in the cholera which has become endemic and epidemic now because since it was introduced in haiti by the uns peacekeepers, which they admitted recently. The cholera, you will have a spike in the cholera because to cleanccess now water. The water sources have been eroded by the flooding. The Food Insecurity will certainly rise because not only are people pots peoples immediate supply reduce, but theyre not able to you know, people who farmed and were a lot of farmers and the resources have been wiped out. So i think you will have it is a longterm disaster and people are now going to go to seek help to think about, not just the immediate effects of this, but it will certainly my most certainly deep in the poverty, specially rural poverty, which has always existed but the fact that peoples few resources now have been wiped away and after rebuild a home and they have to now find other ways to send their children to school, i think it will certainly aggravate the poverty that already exist. You have to remember, the area of the south, an area i go to often a know quite well, it was going through droughts for quite a few years before this happened. It is really going to compound the difficulties of peoples lives. Juan you are speaking to us from miami where there is a large haitianamerican community, some of the poorest residents of miami, and now they are also facing, as the whole of florida is, the Hurricane Matthew. As has happened wi