According to the latest figures from the Civil Defense Authority, 1,941 people were killed and more than 9,900 were injured. The search and rescue operation continued on Tuesday following the flooding caused by the “Grace” tropical storm that struck the affected area of the Tiburon Peninsula at night.
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Tens of thousands of people who lost their homes in the quake were able to protect themselves badly with tents and tarpaulins. The 7.2-magnitude quake destroyed more than 60,000 homes and damaged 76,000 other buildings over the weekend.
However, there was a glimmer of hope: Tuesday morning (local time), three days after the quake, 16 people were rescued from the rubble of a former UN building in the village of Prefet, Civil Defense. Assistance gradually came to the quake area as well. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has flown 52 people for medical treatment, according to its own data. Hospitals in the area were overburdened, poorly equipped, understaffed and self-damaged.
- ZIB-Video: Cleaning in Haiti
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook the region of St. Louis-du-Sud near the eastern city of St. Louis on Saturday morning (local time) at a depth of about ten kilometers. According to UNICEF, 1.2 million people have been affected. Five years ago, Hurricane Matthew devastated the area. Essential items are missing. “The humanitarian situation is very worrying,” said the office of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January 2010 killed more than 220,000 people and left more than a million homeless in Haiti, the poorest country in the United States. Reconstruction was badly affected by corruption and waste.
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Haiti’s already severely unfunded health system is plagued by a recent deteriorating epidemic. In addition, there is a deep political crisis following the assassination of President Joval Moss by a commando at his residence on the night of July 7th. Fighting between groups to recapture parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and about 15,000 people fled in June alone, according to UN figures.
Gangs also control and block the main road in the south of the country. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) held talks with the government and UN representatives, declaring that two aid vehicles should be allowed on the road.
The Haitian human rights organization RNDDH criticized the government’s disaster relief as “total chaos”. About the quake victims “You left it entirely to your own achievements” During the storm, many tents and tarpaulins were torn down, so they “had no roof over their heads,” said Sibyl Poolemann, of the German Press Agency’s Handicap International organization in Port-au-Prince. No one even sleeps in the houses that are still standing during the earthquake – because they may have been unstable and caused by constant earthquakes.