Haitian earthquake survivors living in sheet tents during tropical storm as death toll rises to 1,400

Bodies pulled from rubble in Les Cayes as survivors appeal for aid

The death toll from an earthquake in Haiti has risen further, with officials reporting 1,419 fatalities from the magnitude 7.2 tremor that flattened several towns last weekend.

Haitian authorities said on Monday that 6,900 people were injured in the quake which struck the Caribbean island nation on Saturday. That is in addition to 1,419 deaths, which are continuing to be reported as more victims are recovered.

In Les Cayes, a seaside town that bore the brunt of the quake, rescuers found a blood-stained pillow amid the rubble on Tuesday, which was followed by the body of an infant. Bodies continue to be recovered.

Rescue efforts resumed on Tuesday with reports of volunteer firefighters working through debris. That work was hampered by the landfall of a tropical storm, Grace, with heavy rainfall overnight.

The number of people trapped underneath debris remains unknown, although time is running out.

Tens of thousands of homes are also believed to have fallen, and hospitals and churches have also seen damage. According to authorities, as many as 30,000 families are currently homeless, and have so far spent four nights with limited shelter.

Survivors in Les Cayes, which was southwest of the quake’s epicentre last week, have been staying at a makeshift “tent city”.

The site was damaged by the rainfall overnight, which saw survivors repairing makeshift structures. Images from the camp are reminiscent of an earthquake in 2010 that displaced more than a million Haitians, many of whom were forced to live in tents for years afterwards.

Hundreds of adults and children at the site in Les Cayes are in need of food and humanitarian aide, and have been sleeping on plastic sheets. Others have tried to escape the midday sun by constructing makeshift structures with sheets and wooden sticks.

“We don't have a doctor. We don’t have food. Every morning more people are arriving,” said the deputy head of a committee for the survivors in Les Cayes, Mathieu Jameson. “We have no bathroom, no place to sleep. We need food, we need more umbrellas.”

Those calls were echoed by the United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef) representative in Haiti, who said tens of thousands of families “have lost everything” and “are now living literally with their feet in the water due to the flooding”.

“Right now, about half a million Haitian children have limited or no access to shelter, safe water, healthcare and nutrition,” the Unicef representative, Bruno Maes, added.

Government aid has been slow to reach the city of Les Cayes, which is roughly 150 km (90 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, and other areas that were also hit.

Speaking from the Haitian capital, the prime minister, Ariel Henry, said the western hemisphere’s poorest nation was facing “exceptional circumstances”. His government, formed after the assassination of his predecessor last month, was committed to dispersing aid more effectively than in 2010.

Covid, rising violence, and political instability are among the biggest issues facing the country, which is still suffering from the fall out of the 2010 earthquake that killed 200,000.

Additional reporting by Reuters.