The 7.2 earthquake was a devastating blow to an impoverished country still reeling from a presidential assassination. The leadership vacuum has hampered aid and rescue efforts.
The 7.2 earthquake was a devastating blow to an impoverished country still reeling from a presidential assassination. The leadership vacuum has hampered aid and rescue efforts. Haitians lead desperate effort to evacuate those injured by latest earthquake. Here is what to know about the Haiti earthquake. Haiti scrambles to coordinate aid response after devastating earthquake. The latest Haiti earthquake was more powerful than the devastating quake in 2010. Tropical Storm Grace heads toward quake-ravaged Haiti. LES CAYES, Haiti — Haitians trying to evacuate the injured packed the main airport of the earthquake-devastated town of Les Cayes on Sunday, as the needs of the wounded overwhelmed local hospitals and rescue officials tried to dig people out of collapsed homes and businesses. A magnitude 7.2 earthquake violently shook Haiti on Saturday morning, a devastating blow to an impoverished country that is still reeling from a presidential assassination last month and that never really recovered from a disastrous quake more than 11 years ago. The quake inundated damaged hospitals, flattened buildings and trapped people under rubble in at least two cities in the western part of the country’s southern peninsula, but it didn’t appear to cause major damage in the capital, Port-au-Prince. An official from the Civil Protection Agency said the death toll so far was at least 304 people, with more than 1,800 injured. The quake struck Haiti’s southern peninsula, a less densely populated area of the country. Haiti’s embassy in the United States said in a statement Saturday that “the Haitian government believes high casualties are probable given the earthquake’s magnitude.” The recovery was being conducted as a tropical storm approaches. This conflation of events could have not come at a worse time for the Caribbean nation of 11 million, which has been in the throes of a political crisis since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7. The unsolved assassination, a leadership vacuum, severe poverty and systemic gang violence in parts of Haiti have left the government dysfunctional and ill prepared for a natural calamity. The main supermarket and smaller food and supply markets in Les Cayes collapsed, leaving about half a million people with dwindling supplies and worries that eventually there would be looting and fighting over basics like drinking water. The quake snapped the underground pipes of Les Cayes, causing flooding, and triggered some landslides, blocking the main road into Jeremie and complicating relief efforts there. Many hospitals and clinics were heavily damaged, and officials in Les Cayes believe there are only about 30 doctors for about 1 million people. Herve Foucand, a former senator, was using his small propeller plane to ferry people to Haiti’s capital. “I have 30 people in serious condition waiting for me,” he said. “But I only have seven seats.” Small towns surrounding Les Cayes were cut off by landslides and are believed to be even harder hit. Humanitarian aid was immediately promised by the United States and other countries, the United Nations and private organizations. By Saturday evening, the gangs that control the highway linking the southern peninsula to the rest of Haiti declared a truce for humanitarian reasons, allowing aid to flow to devastated areas and alleviating concerns that trucks delivering the supplies would be held up and looted. Although the video of a gang leader, clad in a white balaclava, was welcomed by aid agencies, it underscored the difficulties facing the nation: The government is not really in control of the country, and the humanitarian relief coordination and delivery will be challenging. Heavy storm clouds are nearing the island of Hispaniola, the island that is home to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The National Hurricane Center said that Tropical Storm Grace, forecast to skirt Puerto Rico today, could bring heavy rain and high winds to Haiti starting Monday, although it appeared the storm might spare the peninsula hardest hit by the earthquake. The heavy rainfall could lead to flooding and potential mudslides, which could complicate already difficult search efforts. — Maria Abi-Habib An earthquake of 7.2. magnitude struck Haiti on Saturday morning. It was stronger than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the Caribbean country in 2010. The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes in the western part of the country, about 80 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the capital. Seismologists said it had a depth of seven miles.
