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‘We are crying out for help’: Death toll in Haiti nearly 2,000 as survivors await aid

Haiti earthquake: People in Les Cayes without food, shelter and clean water, pastor says

People make repairs and create shelter after spending the night outside in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. Photograph: Reginald Louissaint jnr/AFP via Getty

Wed Aug 18 2021 - 09:55

Haitians left homeless by a calamitous earthquake that killed about 2,000 people were on Wednesday increasingly angry at the slow pace of government aid efforts after spending a fourth night in the open, many without clean water and food.

Prime minister Ariel Henry, who flew to visit the worst-affected town of Les Cayes in southwest Haiti soon after Saturday's quake of magnitude 7.2, had praised the dignity shown by survivors and promised a rapid escalation of aid.

But following another night of rains, residents in Les Cayes, including those camped in a mushrooming tent city in the centre of the town, complained of scant help on the ground.

People recover belongings from the rubble of their home destroyed by the earthquake in Fleurant, Haiti. Photograph: Fernando Llano/AP

Pierre Cenel, a local judge in Les Cayes, aimed his ire at the government in Port-au-Prince, echoing the bubbling frustration in the hardest-hit regions.

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“As a judge, I must not have a political opinion. But as a man, as a man concerned about the situation of my country, nothing is working. They didn’t do anything to prepare for this disaster,” Mr Cenel said in downtown Les Cayes.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is still recovering from a quake 11 years ago that killed more than 200,000. The latest calamity comes just over a month after the July 7th assassination of President Jovenel Moise plunged the country into political turmoil.

On Wednesday morning, four US Coast Guard helicopters landed in Les Cayes, bringing patients from more remote areas for treatment, according to an airport worker. The United States has dispatched humanitarian supplies as well as search-and-rescue teams to Haiti.

Latin American countries such as Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela have also sent food, medicine and supplies.

Puerto Rican authorities said they were sending more rescue workers and doctors who were expected to arrive on Wednesday.

Crumbling homes

Flash flooding and landslides in the wake of Tropical Storm Grace, which swept past Jamaica by Tuesday afternoon, worsened the difficulties of reaching remote communities.

Dozens in the fast-expanding tent city at Les Cayes came from the nearby poor neighbourhood of Impasse Filadelfia, where crumbling cement homes, contorted tin roofs and soaked mattresses lined narrow dirt roads.

Water surged into the modest homes after a fast-moving river that edges the neighbourhood burst its banks during the quake. More than a dozen residents there told Reuters they had not seen any government representatives since the earthquake.

“We are crying out for help,” said one of them, Claudel Ledan. “All our houses collapsed and we need help from the government urgently.”

Roosevelt Milford, a pastor speaking on radio on behalf of the hundreds camping out in soggy fields since the quake destroyed their homes, complained that they lacked even the most basic types of aid, such as food, clean drinking water, and shelter from the rain.

In the tent city, displaced residents used machetes to shave down the edges of wooden poles to be staked into the ground to support makeshift tents.

In a country with high levels of violent crime, residents had set up their own security teams to keep watch at night, paying particular attention to the safety of women and girls, he added.

Security concerns about the gang-controlled areas on the route from the capital Port-au-Prince, as well as quake damage to some roads, have slowed access to some of the worst-affected zones, making it difficult for aid and rescue teams.

Death toll

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that successful negotiations with armed groups had permitted a humanitarian convoy to reach Les Cayes. Media said a truce had been agreed with the gangs.

Jerry Chandler, the head of Haiti's Civil Protection Agency, which handles emergency response, said the government was now sending aid to affected areas by land. In the first days after the quake, many medics and aid workers had rushed in by plane.

Authorities said on Tuesday that the earthquake had killed at least 1,941 people, but with rescuers still pulling bodies from the rubble the tally looks set to rise.

In a rare piece of good news, authorities said 16 people were pulled from the wreckage on Tuesday, though as time passes, hopes for survivors dim.

Earthquake damage has hampered the work of several major hospitals. Doctors in makeshift tents have battled to save the injured, from young children to the elderly. – Reuters

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