After deadly earthquake, storm threatens Haiti

Published on : 08/17/2021 – 12:04 AM

Gutted buildings, remains stuck in the rubble. Two days after the powerful earthquake that struck Haiti, relief was activated on Monday August 16 in search of people missing or stranded under the ruins, at the approach of a storm that threatened to further aggravate the situation.

Tropical Depression Grace indeed poses the risk of flooding and landslides in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center has warned.

According to the Haitian Civil Protection Monday afternoon, 1,419 people died and more than 6,900 injured in the earthquake. Over 37,000 homes have been destroyed.

Dilemma

In the small seaside town of Port-Salut as in the rest of the affected regions, residents faced a dilemma: stay outside to protect themselves from aftershocks, or enter damaged buildings to shelter from the severe weather expected with the depression. tropical Grace.

The city hospital has decided: we must try to protect the patients who have piled up in the courtyard, under plastic sheeting, since the earthquake. In the middle of the day Monday, the patients were transferred inside the establishment despite the fear of aftershocks.

Many countries, including the United States, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Ecuador have offered their assistance with the dispatch of personnel, emergency rations and medical equipment.

The American army announced Monday the constitution of a joint military mission, with the deployment already carried out of a team in charge of assessing the situation in the affected areas thanks to aerial observation means. Four helicopters were also mobilized for transport.

Help was busy in the affected areas using trucks and backhoes such as in the city of Cayes, near the epicenter of the earthquake, some 160 km from the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

With AFP