AT least 724 people are confirmed dead after a huge 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit western Haiti on Saturday.
The quake struck 8 km from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 km, the US Geological Survey said.
More than 1,800 are injured and many more are still missing.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.
USGS has estimated “thousands of fatalities” are likely and “tens of thousands of injuries in poor mountainous communities" and has issued a "red alert"
Follow our live blog below for all the latest news and updates…
- Jon Rogers
WHAT PARTS OF HAITI WERE AFFECTED?
While the full extent of the destruction the earthquake inflicted it appears that two cities, Les Cayes and Jeremie, located in Haiti’s southern peninsula, were the worst hit.
Both areas reported major devastation.
Phone lines were down in Petit Trou de Nippes, the epicenter of the quake. No news emerged immediately from that city, leaving Haitian officials to fear for the worst.
- Jon Rogers
SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS
There is a shortage of doctors adding to the problem of hospitals being overwhelmed.
Officials in Les Cayes believe there are only about 30 doctors for about 1 million people, the New York Times reports.
Many hospitals and clinics were heavily damaged and struggling to cope with the number of casualties.
- Jon Rogers
QUAKE EPICENTER
The epicenter of the quake was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The widespread damage could worsen by early next week, with Tropical Storm Grace predicted to reach Haiti late Monday or early Tuesday.
- Jon Rogers
PICTURED: LOCALS FORCED TO SPEND NIGHT ON THE STREETS
Families were forced to sleep out on the streets after the earthquake Locals had nowhere else to go A family eat their breakfast outside after their home was destroyed - Jon Rogers
GANGS HINDERING RELIEF EFFORTS
Humanitarian workers said gang activity in the seaside district of Martissant, just west of the Haitian capital, was complicating relief efforts.
“Nobody can travel through the area,” Ndiaga Seck, a UNICEF spokesman in Port-au-Prince, told the AP. “We can only fly over or take another route.”
Seck said information about deaths and damage was slow coming to Port-au-Prince because of spotty internet service, but UNICEF planned to send medical supplies to two hospitals in the south, in Les Cayes and Jeremie.
- Jon Rogers
HAITI STILL RECOVERING FROM PAST EARTHQUAKES
Haiti is still recovering from a magnitude 7 earthquake from 11 years ago that struck closer to the capital and killed at least 250,000 people, injured 300,000, and displaced more than 1.5 million.
“Everyone is really afraid. It’s been years since such a big earthquake,” Daniel Ross, a resident in the eastern Cuban city of Guantanamo, told Reuters, adding that his home stood firm but the furniture shook.
A video posted to social media depicted a chaotic and frightening scene in Les Cayes, where a building had collapsed onto a street and panic-stricken residents are heard crying out in the background.
The earthquake was also felt across the Caribbean, including in Jamaica and Cuba.
- Jon Rogers
MEDICAL NEED IS ‘BIGGEST URGENCY’ AS HOSPITALS OVERWHELMED
Haitian Prime Minister and acting President Ariel Henry has said that “medical needs” is his country’s “biggest urgency”.
“When it comes to medical needs, this is our biggest urgency. We have started to send medications and medical personnel to the facilities that are affected,” he said. “For the people who need urgent special care, we have evacuated a certain number of them, and we will evacuate some more today and tomorrow.”
The devastating earthquake has left hospitals unable to cope as they try to deal with the number of casualites.
An administrator at Hopital Saint Antoine told CNN: “There are a lot of people coming in… We don’t have enough supplies:”
- Jon Rogers
SOUTHWESTERN HAITI WORST AFFECTED
Southwestern parts of Haiti appear to have born the brunt of the earthquake, especially around the city of Les Cayes.
The latest shocking figures say at least 724 people died with an unknown number of people missing and at least 2,800 people have been injured, officials say.
Rescuers are picking through rubble in a desperate search for any survivors.
- Jon Rogers
TENNIS STAR OFFERS TO DONATE PRIZE MONEY TO HAITI
Tennis star Naomi Osaka, whose father’s family are from Haiti, expressed her sorrow about the quake, saying she would give all the prize money she won at a tournament next week to the relief efforts.
“I know our ancestors blood is strong,” she said on Twitter, “we’ll keep rising.”
- Jon Rogers
POPE URGES COUNTRIES TO SEND URGENT AID
Pope Francis has urged countries to send quick aid to the devastated country of Haiti.
“May solidarity from everyone lighten the consequences of the tragedy,” he told pilgrims and tourists at his Sunday blessing in St. Peter’s Square.
The United States sent vital supplies and deployed a 65-person urban search-and-rescue team with specialized equipment, said Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.
- Patrick Knox
STORM TO BLIGHT QUAKE-HIT HAITI
The rescue efforts are set to be made more complicated by the arrival of Tropical Storm Grace, which is set to lash Haiti with heavy rainfall on Monday.
There was also the possibility of flash flooding, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
- Patrick Knox
ELITE DISASTER SQUAD
- Patrick Knox
HORRIFIC DAMAGE
Heavy damage was reported in the center of the city of Jeremie, home to around 200,000 people and composed primarily of single-story buildings.
The damage in the city of Les Cayes also appeared to be significant, including the collapse of a multi-story hotel.
Amid ongoing fear of aftershocks, virtually the entire population of that city spent Saturday night outdoors, sleeping in front of their homes — or what was left of them.
- Patrick Knox
DEATH TOLL SHOOTS UP
At least 724 people were killed in the powerful earthquake that rocked Haiti, authorities said today updating the toll on the disaster-hit nation.
An additional 2,800 people were injured in the 7.2-magnitude tremor that struck early Saturday, the country’s civil protection agency said.
- Patrick Knox
HAITI ALREADY HIT BY COVID
The reports of overwhelmed hospitals come as Haiti struggles with the pandemic and a lack of resources to deal with it.
The country of 11 million people received its first batch of U.S.-donated coronavirus vaccines only last month via a United Nations program for low-income countries.
- Patrick Knox
‘HAZARDOUS TSUNAMI WAVES’
The US Tsunami Warning System said “hazardous tsunami waves are forecast” with waves reaching one to three meters above the tide level possible along the coast of Haiti. The warning was lifted just over an hour later.
A series of smaller aftershocks continued to shake the island after the original quake, USGS reported.
One registering a magnitude of 5.2 occurred 17 km (10 miles) from Chantal earlier this morning.
- Patrick Knox
QUAKE EPICENTER
The epicenter of the quake was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The widespread damage could worsen by early next week, with Tropical Storm Grace predicted to reach Haiti late Monday or early Tuesday.
- Patrick Knox
860 HOMES DESTROYED, 700 DAMAGED
Jerry Chandler, director of Haitis Office of Civil Protection, told reporters that the death toll stood at 304 last night.
Rescue workers and bystanders were able to pull many people to safety from the rubble.
Chandler said a partial survey of structural damage found at least 860 destroyed homes and more than 700 damaged.
Hospitals, schools, offices and churches were also affected.
- Patrick Knox
GANGS HOLD UP AID
Access to the worst-hit areas was complicated by a deterioration in law and order that has left key access roads in parts of Haiti in the hands of gangs.
But unconfirmed reports on social media suggested they would let aid pass.
- Patrick Knox
TENNIS STAR VOWS TO GIVE PRIZE MONEY TO RELIEF EFFORTS
- Patrick Knox
PICTURED: THE SEARCH CONTINUES
Red Cross paramedics carry a girl injured during a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti
- Patrick Knox
BIDEN ‘SADDENED’
The President said: “I am saddened by the devastating earthquake that occurred in Saint-Louis du Sud, Haiti this morning.
“Through USAID, we are supporting efforts to assess the damage and assist efforts to recover and rebuild.”
- Patrick Knox
POPE CALLS FOR WORLD ‘SOLIDARITY’
At the Vatican, Pope Francis urged nations to send quick aid. “
May solidarity from everyone lighten the consequences of the tragedy,” he told pilgrims and tourists at his blessing this morning in St. Peter’s Square.
- Katie Balevic
TROPICAL STORM GRACE COULD HIT HAITI
To make matters worse, the region may be impacted by Tropical Storm Grace early next week.
Formerly a tropical depression, Grace strengthened to tropical storm status about 400 miles east of the Leeward Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm is expected to bring heavy rain and flooding and could hit Haiti as soon as Monday, forecasts show.
“We’re concerned that this earthquake is just one more crisis on top of what the country is already facing – including the worsening political stalemate after the president’s assassination, COVID and food insecurity,” said Jean-Wickens Merone, spokesman for World Vision Haiti.
- Katie Balevic
HAITI FACES HIGH POVERTY
Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, with 60 percent of its population living below the poverty line.
The disaster-stricken nation is still reeling from the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moïse, on July 7.
Haiti is still also still feeling the effects of the devastating earthquake that decimated the nation in January 2010.
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