Haiti earthquake: research continues to find survivors

Published on : 08/15/2021 – 11:13

Rescue teams were looking for survivors Sunday August 15 in Haiti, the day after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that left at least 304 dead and more than 1,800 injured in the southwest of the island, reviving the terrible memories of the great earthquake of 2010.

The earthquake occurred at 8:29 a.m. local time (12:29 GMT) on Saturday, 12 km from the city of Saint-Louis-du-Sud, located some 160 km from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, according to reports. data from the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS). Many buildings collapsed during the powerful earthquake that trapped hundreds of residents under concrete slabs.

Residents mobilized to help victims injured in the collapse of buildings. “The first interventions, carried out by professional rescuers as well as by members of the population, made it possible to extract many people from the rubble”, underlined the civil protection services.

More than 1,800 people were injured in the earthquake and the few hospitals in the affected regions are already struggling to provide emergency care.

The head of government, who flew over the most affected areas by helicopter on Saturday, announced that a state of emergency had been declared for one month in the four departments affected by the disaster.

Staff and medicines have been dispatched by the Ministry of Health to the southwestern peninsula, but emergency logistics are jeopardized by the insecurity that has plagued Haiti for months.

Foreign aid

Over a little over two kilometers, the only road connecting the capital to the southern half of the country crosses the poor neighborhood of Martissant, under the control of armed gangs since early June, preventing free movement. “All the aid must be able to pass,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry said on Saturday evening.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday offered “immediate” US assistance. He tasked the director of the United States International Aid Agency (USAID), Samantha Powers, to coordinate this effort. The Dominican Republic, neighboring Haiti on the same island, has announced the dispatch of 10,000 emergency rations and medical equipment.

Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela have also offered to help, as has Ecuador, which sends a team of 34 firefighters to help with the search. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez assured Haitians that they could “count on help from Spain”.

The 253 Cuban doctors present in the country to cooperate in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic were adapting a hospital in Port-au-Prince to receive the wounded.

“This devastation really hurts”

Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, whose father is Haitian, will offer all of the earnings she will receive in an upcoming tournament to the victims of the earthquake. “This devastation really hurts,” she wrote on twitter.

On the south coast, a multi-story hotel, called Le Manguier, collapsed in Les Cayes, Haiti’s third largest city. The lifeless body of former Haitian senator Gabriel Fortuné, owner of the hotel, was removed from the rubble. His death has been confirmed by the Prime Minister.

The long shock was felt across the country. With over 200,000 inhabitants, the agglomeration of Jérémie, at the southwestern tip of the peninsula, suffered extensive damage in the city center. “The roof of the cathedral has fallen,” Job Joseph, a resident of Jeremiah, told AFP. “The main street is blocked”.

“I was at home when it started to shake, I was near a window and I saw all things fall”, told AFP, Christella Saint Hilaire, 21, who lives in the town of L’Asile, near the epicenter of the earthquake. “A piece of wall fell on my back, but I’m not too hurt.”

The poorest country in the Americas still remembers the earthquake of January 12, 2010, which devastated the capital and several provincial towns. Over 200,000 people were killed and over 300,000 others were injured in the disaster. More than a million and a half Haitians were left homeless, placing the authorities and the international humanitarian community before the colossal challenge of reconstruction in a country without land registry or building rules. Without succeeding in meeting this reconstruction challenge, Haiti, regularly hit by hurricanes, plunged into an acute socio-political crisis.

With AFP