The flood couldn’t shake their faith. Several Haitians gather to worship Jesus in churches damaged by Hurricane Matthew.

The flood couldn’t shake their faith.

Several Haitians gather to worship Jesus in churches damaged by Hurricane Matthew.

Survivors of Hurricane Matthew put on their Sunday finest and picked their way through downed power lines to sing praise and pray in ruined churches, while desperation grew in other parts of devastated Haiti and international rescue efforts began ramping up. Guillaume Silvera, a senior official with the Civil Protection Agency in the storm-blasted Grand-Anse Department, which includes Jeremie, said at least 522 deaths were confirmed there alone — not including people in several remote communities still cut off by collapsed roads and bridges.National Civil Protection headquarters in Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, said Saturday its official count for the whole country was 336, which included 191 deaths in Grand-Anse. Despite the loss, families packed what remained the city's churches, many seated in pews under open sky because Matthew ripped away roofs and even walls of the sanctuaries, according to report on Yahoo. At least one was so badly damaged that worshippers set up an altar and prayed outside.Elise Pierre, who said she was about 80, said she believed it was a divine miracle that she and her loved ones survived."If God wasn't protecting us we'd all be gone today, blown into the ocean or up into the mountains," said Pierre, whose straw hat almost concealed a gash on her forehead she sustained when her sheet metal roof collapsed during the height of Matthew's fury. According to report on Yahoo.