Rescue workers in Haiti are already working under difficult conditions after the quake, which left almost 1,300 dead. Now they are also fighting against time: The low “Grace” is approaching the Caribbean state.
Saint-Louis-du-Sud – The death toll after the earthquake in Haiti continues to rise sharply – now heavy rains and storms threaten to complicate the desperate search for survivors. The country’s civil defense reported 1297 deaths on Twitter.
An even higher number is feared because thousands of buildings have been destroyed. People were buried under collapsed houses, hotels, schools, churches. Rescue work and relief measures have started. Now a tropical low could hit the disaster area on Monday.
Extent still unclear
The head of civil defense, Jerry Chandler, had previously reported at least 724 deaths. More than 5,700 people were injured, as the newspaper “Le Nouvelliste” reported, citing civil defense. Around 13,700 houses were destroyed and just as many damaged.
Haiti is still on high alert, the next danger may already be imminent: The National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded tropical storm “Grace”, which was approaching Haiti. However, it predicted heavy rain for the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Monday, which could further affect the rescue work.
Overloaded hospitals
The quake, the strength of which the US agency USGS stated as 7.2, occurred on Saturday morning around twelve kilometers from the municipality of Saint-Louis-du-Sud at a depth of around ten kilometers. With many aftershocks, some of them strong, numerous people spent the night outdoors on Sunday, according to reports on social media.
Hospitals were overloaded. In the courtyard of a hospital in Jérémie, one of the most affected cities, injured people were waiting in tents for their treatment, as was shown in a video on social networks. Roads were blocked after landslides.
Politically unstable situation
Parts of the poor Caribbean country were devastated by a severe earthquake in 2010. At the time, Haiti’s densely populated capital, Port-au-Prince, was at the center of the quake. 222,000 people died and more than 300,000 were injured. More than a million people lost their homes. Politically, too, the situation is extremely tense – President Jovenel Moïse was only murdered in his residence at the beginning of July. dpa
