JACMEL, Haiti: This coastal city normally would be gearing up for its raucous Carnival festival, with revelers in brightly decorated masks dancing in the streets and the air filled with joyous song.

Instead, the streets are plugged with rubble, the air heavy with the stench of the dead. And the only melody is a mournful tune strummed by Gabriel Mollet.

The unemployed Mollet played guitar amid the ruins on a downtown street, huddled with a few friends as they pondered their fate and the future of this once-graceful city that hoped to greet tourists for the pre-Lenten season.