Haiti Earthquake: Tropical Storm Grace Leaves Tens of Thousands of People Homeless

Tens of thousands of people are being rescued after a deadly earthquake struck Haiti, leaving them homeless and cold brought by heavy rain of Tropical Storm Grace.

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday killed at least 1,419 people, where 6,900 were injured, and an unknown number are still missing. Rescue workers started digging through blocks of cement from fallen buildings to find survivors but were rained on by the storm. Nevertheless, the workers continued on the rescue before the rain turns the debris and soil to mud.

Damages brought by the quake hampered by the tropical depression

According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), tropical depression Grace was upgraded to a tropical storm west of the city of Les Cayes, and moving further westward towards Jamaica on Tuesday, 06:00 GMT.

While struggles of people are still fresh from experiencing the deadly quake, NHC fears that the storm could trigger landslide as Grace dumps up to 25cm (10 inches) of rain over the worst affected area.

Haiti's civil protection agency encouraged "good neighbors whose space has not been affected" to shelter some people who have lost their homes, especially around the city of Les Cayes, south-west of Haiti where people had most likely suffered the greatest.

The worst damages include Hotel in Les Cayes and cathedral in Jérémie. Among others are homes, churches and schools flattened in the quake. Officials feared that some hospitals cannot attend to injured patients.

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Hospitals are under fear of collapse

Haiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters in the past years, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and the deadliest one in 2010 that killed 200,000 people and destroyed the country's infrastructure and economy.

When deadly natural disasters like this hit, it is feared that hospitals in the remote part of the country cannot accommodate as much as they need to. While treating survivors are already hard, hospitals under state of collapse make it more difficult to cope with impacts brought by natural disasters.

Among them is the Les Cayes Ofatma hospital that struggled to provide shelter and brought everyone outside, swatting away flies on hospital beds and placed under makeshift tents and trees, screaming in pain.

Elsy, a survivor, had just woken up when the quake hit. Her son suffered serious fracture to his leg, while another woman who has a very bad broken leg and pregnant as well had received no pain relief for two days.

Doctors have struggled to find medicine and treat patients with the lack of needed facilities. People are desperate of help but to no avail. Total lack of mitigation plans had led to unpleasant scenarios of screams for help. The tropical storm had made things worse for the homeless, rescuers, and those injured.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Haitian politician and neurosurgeon serving as the 23rd prime minister of Haiti and acting president of Haiti urged people to "show solidarity" in this hopeless times.

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