Jacmel is world famous for it carnival celebration, which features work by the town’s renown artists and mask-makers, and in which the entire town participates. The town was severely damaged by the earthquake of January 12th, which not only devastated Port au Prince, but sent shock waves rippling through the mountains and into Jacmel, which is on Haiti’s southern coast. Much of the old section of Jacmel was leveled, and twenty thousand Jacmelians took shelter near the airfield, where they were taken care of by the World Food Program, who had stockpiled supplies in Jacmel in anticipation of not an earthquake, but of hurricanes which are an annual threat to the region. Like the larger Carnival in Port au Prince, the Mardi Gras celebration in Jacmel was canceled this year. In its place was a single solemn parade, sponsored by Zanmi Lakay, a non-profit that provides for Haitian street children, which was a memorial to the lost carnival. The mask makers walked in their costumes carrying, instead of wearing their masks, in support of those who had lost their lives in the tragedy.