PUERTO PRINCIPE – The agencies of the United Nations system intensified their efforts to deliver aid and search for shelters for the population of Haiti, before the arrival this Monday 16 of the tropical storm Grace, which can multiply the disaster caused by the earthquake in the south of the country two days ago.
“A decade after the previous earthquake, Haiti is reeling again. And this catastrophe coincides with political instability, increased gang violence, alarming rates of malnutrition among children and the covid-19 pandemic, “summarized UNICEF CEO Henrietta Fore.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), the World Food Program (PMA) and the International Organization for Migrations (IOM) try to reach areas with roads blocked by landslides before the expected rains, floods and new landslides that will arrive with Grace.
The 7.2 earthquake on the Richter scale on the 14th caused the death of 1,300 people, and left several thousand injured and families out in the open, as more than 13,600 homes were destroyed or affected, as well as roads, schools and health centers, especially in the southwest of the country.
The IOM stated that it is working against the clock to find safe buildings in which thousands of displaced residents can take refuge, before the impact of the storm, while the numbers of those affected increase as rescue and relief teams reach areas that were isolated .
“The numbers will increase as data collection progresses, and one of the priorities in the coming weeks will be the proper management of emergency shelters and humanitarian support to the thousands of displaced people,” said Federica Cecchet, deputy head of the IOM mission in Haiti.
Fore highlighted among the most urgent humanitarian needs health care, the use of drinking water, protection for minors, shelter for the displaced and the shipment of covid vaccines, as this country of 11.2 million inhabitants has only received the date 500,000 doses.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, local hospitals are already overflowing with wounded, especially in Les Cayes and Jérémie, the southwestern territories.
Countries in the hemisphere have mobilized in support of Haiti, and the United States sent a team of 65 expert rescue workers over the weekend to help search for survivors trapped under the landslides.
The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, sent rations of food and medical supplies by sea, while two planes from Mexico, and one from Venezuela and another from Chile, traveled with several tons of food, water, supplies and medicines.
Chile also offered to transport the aid made available by countries such as Costa Rica and Panama, while waiting for the arrival of materials from Canada, Colombia, China, Spain, France and Taiwan.
Among the calls of international figures to solidarity with Haiti, those of the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, Pope Francis and the Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, of Haitian father, stood out.
The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed 316,000 people and left more than 300,000 injured and 1.5 million homeless.
Storm Grace, which was moving towards the southern coast of Hispaniola on Monday with winds of 55 kilometers per hour, is the seventh in the current hurricane season in the Atlantic.
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