Between the earthquake..and the storm..and the flood
Haitians face endless ordeal
He cooks pasta as he sprawls out on the floor outside his makeshift tent.
Reuters
A garbage dump on the side of the road leads to the spread of more diseases and epidemics inside the makeshift tents for the displaced.
Reuters
An old man looks puzzled in a state of anxiety and fear of the future.
Reuters
3 men build a temporary hut to house them inside the camp.
Reuters
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Exhausted residents of southwest Haiti, who have no choice but to stay on the streets threatened by flooding since the earthquake, are helpless in the face of bad weather caused by a tropical storm.
In the city of Li Kai, more than 200 people have begun building fragile shelters in a flooded soccer field, amid constant winds and rain.
All of them were affected by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that destroyed tens of thousands of homes on Saturday.
And 1941 people were killed in the earthquake, according to a toll that is still "very partial", announced by the Haitian Civil Defense a few days ago.
While rubble clearing continues in the city in the hope of finding survivors, a US Coast Guard helicopter has organized flights to transport critically ill patients.
helicopters
The United States, which has evacuated about 40 people in need of emergency treatment with three Coast Guard helicopters, has chartered another eight Army helicopters from Honduras to continue medical evacuation efforts.
The Southern Command of the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) said that the US Navy transport ship "USS Arlington" is scheduled to arrive in Haiti today with a surgical team.
Medical aid is organized for thousands of wounded, with the emergence of field operations rooms in some medical centers in the earthquake-affected area.
At the Ufatma hospital site in Kayes, US soldiers unloaded boxes of equipment before flying to the capital, Port-au-Prince, a seriously injured man and a child named Jeremy (seven years old), who was carried by a Hero Ambulance employee.
"This little boy has a brain hemorrhage that could damage him for the rest of his life," said Caroline Davies, a nurse with Canadian Medical Assistance NGO, who arrived in Lee Kay the day after the quake.
If we can help him, he might have a normal childhood, so this (help) makes a difference.”
After waiting for two days, this international support is a source of relief for the medical team at Li Kai Hospital, who are still disappointed, especially with a scanner or people trained to operate this type of device.
maximum vigilance
Magali Cadet, 41, with a waterproof hair cap, looks exhausted after three days of ordeals.
"Even in order to satisfy our need, we don't have a place, so we have to look in the streets for a place to get rid of our waste," said the woman, tired of the incessant aftershocks.
"Yesterday evening, I took shelter in a place near the church, but when we felt the ground shaking again, I ran back here," she said.
About 9900 people were injured in the earthquakes and their aftershocks.
Authorities said rescuers pulled 34 people alive from under the rubble in two days.
And to the plight of the victims sleeping outside, Tropical Storm Grace last Tuesday brought torrential rain.
The Miami-based Hurricane Center said the rains in some places caused "major flooding."
In these circumstances, she called on the Haitian authorities to "exercise the utmost caution" in the face of cracked houses that may collapse under the influence of rain.
Residents who are hastily building makeshift shelters are furious.
"Last night we had a bad situation," said Natasha Lormera, holding a small piece of wood with a torn piece of cloth.
Wind and then heavy rain.
I kept sitting and every time the storms would send us water.”
"I don't want to go under a corridor or a corner of a wall because we've seen people die under parts of the walls, so we decide it's better to get wet than die," she added.
The state does not solve any problem
Water-soaked Vladimir Gil, 28, tries to plant a few pieces of bamboo deep in the grass to protect his wife and child.
"My house is destroyed and I don't have a place to sleep," he said.
We need a plastic sheet to sleep a little without rain, but the state does not solve any problem.”
Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a month-long state of emergency in the four provinces affected by the disaster.
But the poorest country on the American continent is facing political chaos a month after the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moyes, which has further complicated its administration.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated on Tuesday that 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, were affected by the crisis.
Access to water remains very limited in some places, such as the town of Pestel, where more than 1,800 tankers have been crushed or damaged, raising fears of deteriorating sanitary conditions.
A few months after the devastating earthquake that killed 200,000 people in 2010, poor sewage management at a United Nations base in Haiti led to the spread of cholera in the country.
• Access to water remains very limited in some places, such as the town of Pestel, where more than 1,800 tankers have been crushed or damaged, raising fears of deteriorating sanitary conditions.
• A few months after the devastating earthquake that killed 200,000 people in 2010, poor sewage management at a United Nations base in Haiti led to the spread of cholera in the country.
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