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Thousands of houses and buildings were destroyed by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Saturday.
On Sunday, Haiti’s hospital was flooded by thousands of injured residents. A devastating earthquake occurred the day before, killing at least 1,297 people as authorities scrambled to take doctors to the worst-hit area before a major storm hit. area.
The magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Saturday destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in a Caribbean country that is still recovering from another major earthquake 11 years ago and is in trouble due to the assassination of the president last month .
Southwest Haiti bears the brunt, especially in the town of Lekay and its surrounding areas. The Haitian Civil Defense Agency stated that the death toll from the disaster has risen to 1,297, and the operating hospital is struggling to deal with it, and about 5,700 people have been injured.
In Jeremy, another heavily-hit northwestern city, due to lack of space in the medical center, doctors treated injured patients on a hospital stretcher under a tree and on a mattress by the roadside.
“We do have a serious problem,” Jerry Chandler, director of the Haitian Civil Defense Agency, told Reuters.
He said: “When we spoke, there were some very important facilities that were dysfunctional, and those facilities that were functioning normally were receiving a large number of patients.”
The challenge in Haiti was triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, intense gang violence exacerbated the severe economic recession, and sweeping the beleaguered country after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7 The political crisis intensified.
Churches, hotels, hospitals and schools were severely damaged or destroyed, while the walls of a prison were torn apart by the violent tremors of Haiti. The Civil Defense Agency stated that about 13,694 houses were destroyed, indicating that the death toll may rise further.
In Les Cayes, a seaside town with about 90,000 people, rescuers in red helmets and blue overalls pulled bodies out of the chaotic wreckage of a building, while a nearby yellow mechanical excavator was helping to remove the rubble .
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who flew to Lesques, praised the dignity shown by the people there even in suffering.
“They are affected but resilient. They fight for survival,” he said, thanking international agencies and foreign governments for their support.
Nearby countries, including the Dominican Republic and Mexico, rushed to deliver much-needed food and medicine by air and across the land border of Haiti. Colombia sent search and rescue personnel.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Director Samantha Power said that the United States has dispatched important supplies and deployed a 65-person urban search and rescue team equipped with professional equipment.
Pope Francis in the Vatican urged the international community to express support quickly. “May everyone’s unity alleviate the consequences of the tragedy,” he told pilgrims and tourists in a Sunday blessing in St. Peter’s Square.
However, the Haitian government called on aid organizations not to set up temporary camps and urged them to work through the Ministry of Planning, apparently to avoid mistakes made after the devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people in 2010.
On Sunday, many Haitians were preparing to spend their second night in the open air, traumatizing their memories of the magnitude 7 earthquake that occurred closer to the capital Port-au-Prince 11 years ago.
At Port-au-Prince Airport, international rescuers, doctors and rescuers boarded the flight to Lakai. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter transports the wounded.
Rescue and aid work will be complicated by tropical depression Grace, and heavy rainfall is expected in Haiti on Monday. The Haitian Civil Defense Agency stated that the expected rainfall is about 75 to 100 milliliters, which may trigger landslides and cause some rivers to flood.
“We ask the public to be vigilant,” the agency added.
Chandler, the head of the agency, said that because of the rising risk of water-borne diseases, thousands of people sleeping on the street will be exposed to heavy rain.
Due to the interruption of telephone networks in remote areas, the death toll is expected to rise. Alix Percinthe of the ActionAid charity said that in hard-to-reach villages, many houses are fragile and built on slopes prone to landslides.
He said that a local leader told him that 47 people had died in his area and had not reported it to the local authorities.
Humanitarian corridor
A video of the aftermath posted on social media on Saturday showed residents reaching into the narrow openings of piles of collapsed masonry, pulling shocked and upset people from the debris of the surrounding collapsed walls and roofs.
Due to the deterioration of law and order, the main passages in parts of Haiti have fallen into the hands of gangs, making access to the worst-hit areas more complicated. In a video posted on social media, a gang leader stated that the armed group had declared a ceasefire along the route to Lesques.
Chandler said that ships and helicopters are used to transport aid, but the government is working hard to establish safe road access. The first aid convoy has reached the Les Cayes area by land.
The United Nations has called for the establishment of “humanitarian corridors” so that aid can pass through gang-controlled territories.
After Moise was assassinated, the authorities claimed that it was done by a group of mainly Colombian mercenaries and Haitian associates. Prime Minister Henry stated that the officials’ goal was to hold a new presidential election as soon as possible.
However, reports this week indicate that the vote originally scheduled for September will not take place until November. The chaos caused by Saturday’s disaster may make the task of holding elections swiftly more difficult.
Haiti has been politically unstable for a long time, and Haitians have also suffered from problems caused by international aid efforts and peacekeeping deployments in the past decade.
The sexual misconduct scandal centered on Oxfam International has destroyed the records of Haitian charity workers, and a cholera outbreak related to UN peacekeepers has killed thousands.
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