Heavy rains from tropical storm Grace hit the island of Haiti on Tuesday, days after a deadly earthquake devastated the Caribbean. The 7.2 magnitude quake on Saturday killed more than 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
Days after the quake, bodies are still littered the streets while officials grapple with the chaos and bad weather. Some hospitals are structurally unsafe after the disaster, forcing medical staff to treat patients outdoors. Many other people are too scared to return to their homes for fear that another quake will bring them down.
While people seek shelter as much as possible, often in makeshift tents, humanitarian workers have delivered food and dealt with injuries. Save the Children has provided about 250 families with tarpaulins, canisters and baby care kits, but the support group says the weather is making an already dire situation worse.
“I see children crying in the street, people asking us for food, but we also have little food ourselves,” said Carl-Henry Petit-Frère, Save the Children’s sales manager, the Associated Press. “The organizations that are here are doing what they can, but we need more supplies. Food, clean water and shelter are needed most, and we need them quickly. “
Haiti, a deeply impoverished and unstable country, is still suffering from the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, as well as the assassination of its president last month and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
