Tropical storm engulfs Haiti earthquake

Les Cayes, Haiti (AP) – Tropical Storm Grace swept Haiti with torrential rain just two days after a powerful earthquake hit the impoverished Caribbean nation, adding to the misery of thousands who lost loved ones, suffered injuries or found themselves homeless and forced to overcome. . Hospitals and rescuers to act quickly.

After dark, torrential rain and strong winds hit the southwest region of the country, which was hard hit by Saturday’s earthquake, and officials warned that rain could reach 15 inches (38 cm) in some areas before the storm continued. The capital, Port-au-Prince, also experienced heavy rain. Grace regained tropical storm status after previously falling to a tropical depression.

The storm arrived on the same day the country’s Civil Protection Agency raised the death toll from the earthquake to 1,419 and the number of injured to 6,000, many of whom had to wait for medical help outside due to the sweltering heat.

Rain and wind in Grace raised the risk of mudslides and flash floods as it slowly passed near the Tiburon Peninsula in southwest Haiti overnight, before turning toward Jamaica and southeast Cuba on Tuesday.

The earthquake nearly destroyed some towns in the southwest in the latest disaster to befall the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Haitians were already grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, gang violence, worsening poverty, and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moss.

“We are in an exceptional situation,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry told reporters Monday afternoon, as the storm approached.

One hospital in the hard-hit Les Caye town was so crowded with patients after the earthquake that many had to lie in courtyards, hallways, verandas and walkways, but the approaching storm made officials scramble to move them as best they could.

“We planned to pitch tents (in hospital courtyards), but we were told it couldn’t be safe,” said Jeddi Peterson, director of Les Cayes General Hospital.

This isn’t the first time the hospital has had to improvise. Cooling in the hospital morgue did not work for three months, but after the earthquake on Saturday, staff had to store up to 20 bodies in a small space. Relatives came quickly to take most of them to private embalming services or immediate burial. By Monday, only three bodies were in the mortuary.

“We are working now to ensure the resources we have are getting to the hardest-hit places,” said Civil Protection Agency chief Jerry Chandler, referring to the hardest-hit towns of Lee Kay and Jeremy and Nippes County. .

Victims of the earthquake continued to pour into the exhausted Les Cayes General Hospital, waiting on the stairs, in the corridors and on the open veranda.

“After two days, they’re almost injured in general,” said Dr. Baurus Michelet, who treated 250 patients and was one of only three doctors on call when the quake struck. He added that painkillers, analgesics and steel screws to repair fractures began to run out amid crowds of patients.

Meanwhile, rescuers and scrap metal workers dug into the floors of a collapsed hotel in the coastal city, where 15 bodies have already been recovered. Jean-Moise Fortuny, whose brother, a prominent hotelier and politician, was killed in the earthquake, believes that there are more people trapped under the rubble.

But judging by the size of the voids the workers gazed at warily, perhaps a foot deep (30 cm), it seemed unlikely that any survivors would be found.

With work, fuel, and money running out, desperate Li Kai residents search the crumbling homes for scrap metal to sell. Others waited for wire money from abroad, a mainstay of Haiti’s economy, even before the earthquake.

Anthony Emile waited six hours in line with dozens of others trying to get money his brother had sent from Chile, where he has worked since the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital and killed tens of thousands.

“We’ve been waiting for this since morning, but there are a lot of people,” said Emile, a banana farmer who said his relatives in the countryside depended on him to give them money to survive.

In Jeremy, Police Commissioner Paul Maynard denied a report on social media about the looting.

“If that had been going on, it would have been on the first night or two,” Maynard said.

Officials said the 7.2-magnitude earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and nearly 5,000 homes were destroyed by the quake, leaving about 30,000 families homeless. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches were destroyed or severely damaged.

Josel Eleuvan, 84, crouched on the stairs of Les Cayes General Hospital, clutching an x-ray showing his shattered arm bone and asking for a pain reliever. Michelty said he would give one of the few remaining shots to Elovan, who ran away from his home when the earthquake hit, and a wall fell on him.

Nearby, on the hospital’s outdoor balcony, patients were on beds and mattresses, hooked up to intravenous sachets of saline. Others lay in the garden under bed sheets that had been set up to protect them from the sun. None of the patients or relatives caring for them have been wearing face masks amid the spread of the coronavirus.

Structural engineers from the global Miyamoto Structural and Seismic Engineering Corporation visited hard-hit areas Monday to help with damage assessment and urban search and rescue efforts. Chief Executive Officer and President Kate Miyamoto said that among their duties were to inspect government water towers and damaged offices of charities in the area.

Miyamoto said he saw places devastated by earthquakes rebuild stronger. He said the devastation in Port-au-Prince from the 2010 earthquake prompted construction workers and others to improve their building practices. People in the capital felt the tremor on Saturday morning was centered 75 miles to the west and rushed into the streets in fear, but there were no reports of damage.

“The Port-au-Prince building is much better than it was in 2010 — I know that,” Miyamoto said. “It is a big difference, but this knowledge is not widespread. The focus is definitely on Port-au-Prince.”

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Associated Press writers Daniel Trenton in New York and Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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