After deadly Haiti earthquake, storm strikes and floods threaten

Published on : 08/18/2021 – 04:28

Soaked, exhausted inhabitants, with no other choice but to urinate and defecate in streets threatened by flooding: the southwest of Haiti is plunging hour by hour into chaos, the victims of its recent earthquake being Tuesday, August 17 helpless in the face of severe weather from a new tropical storm.

In the city of Les Cayes, more than 200 people are starting to build, under a persistent wind and rain, precarious shelters on a flooded football field. All are affected by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Saturday, which in seconds reduced tens of thousands of homes to dust. At least 1,941 people were killed, according to a still “very partial” assessment announced Tuesday by the Haitian civil protection.

As rubble clearance continues in this city, still with hopes of finding survivors, a United States Coast Guard helicopter has organized rotations to transport critically ill patients.

Helicopters

The United States, which evacuated around 40 people for urgent treatment with three Coast Guard helicopters, chartered eight army helicopters from Honduras to continue medical evacuation efforts.

The USS Arlington, a US Navy transport ship is also due to arrive in Haiti on Wednesday with a surgical team, the Pentagon’s Southern Command said.

Medical aid to the thousands of injured is also being organized with the rise of operating theaters in the countryside in a few hospitals in the area affected by the earthquake.

After two days of waiting, this international support is a relief for the medical team at Les Cayes hospital, which nonetheless remains disillusioned with their destitution, and in particular the absence of a scanner, or of people trained for them. make it work.

Extreme vigilance

Some 9,900 people were injured by the tremors and their aftershocks. From the rubble, rescuers have extracted 34 people alive in the past 48 hours, authorities said.

In addition to the ordeal of the victims who sleep outside, on Tuesday, the showers carried by tropical storm Grace are added. The precipitation in places may cause “major flooding”, according to the American Hurricane Center, based in Miami.

Under these conditions, the Haitian authorities called for “extreme vigilance” with regard to the cracked houses, which could collapse under the weight of the rain.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry has declared a state of emergency for one month in the four departments affected by the disaster. But the poorest country on the American continent is facing political chaos, a month after the assassination of its president Jovenel Moïse, further complicating its governance.

Unicef ​​estimated Tuesday that 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, were affected by the crisis.

Access to water also remains very restricted in places, such as in the town of Pestel, where more than 1,800 cisterns are cracked or crushed, raising fears of a deterioration in sanitary conditions.

With AFP