Hopes for quake survivors dim as storm lashes Haiti

LES CAYES (Haiti) • Heavy rain lashed Haiti on Monday night, complicating rescue efforts and drenching thousands left homeless by a devastating earthquake that has killed more than 1,400 people.

Tropical Depression Grace churned over the regions of southwest Haiti that were most badly hit by last Saturday's 7.2-magnitude quake, whipping towns with high winds and torrential rain, and causing flooding in at least one area.

The disaster brought down tens of thousands of buildings in the poorest country in the Americas, which is still recovering from another major quake 11 years ago that killed over 200,000 people.

The latest quake comes just over a month after Haiti was plunged into political turmoil by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Several major hospitals were severely damaged, hampering humanitarian efforts, as were the focal points of many communities, such as churches and schools.

Doctors battled in makeshift tents outside hospitals to save the lives of hundreds of injured, including young children and the elderly.

The authorities on Monday said 1,419 deaths had been confirmed, with some 6,900 people injured.

Hopes were beginning to dim of finding significant numbers of survivors among the wreckage. The storm impeded rescuers in the seaside city of Les Cayes, about 150km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, which bore the brunt of the quake.

It is expected to dump up to 38cm of water on parts of Haiti, creating a risk of flash floods, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Rescue workers from across Haiti were digging alongside residents through the rubble on Monday evening in a bid to reach bodies, though few voiced hope of finding anyone alive.

A smell of dust and decomposing bodies permeated the air.

"We came from all over to help: from the north, from Port-au Prince, from everywhere," said Ms Maria Fleurant, a firefighter from northern Haiti.

As heavy rain began to fall, emergency workers pulled a blood-stained pillow from under the rubble, followed by the corpse of a three-year-old boy who appeared to have died in his sleep.

Shortly after, as the rain intensified, the workers left.

With more than 37,000 houses destroyed by the quake, according to the Haitian authorities, and many of those still unexcavated, the death toll is expected to rise.

Mr Vital Jaenkendy, who watched as a bulldozer shifted rubble from his collapsed apartment building, said eight residents had died and four were missing.

Mr Jaenkendy and others have been sleeping under a tarpaulin on a dirt road nearby, and were hunkering down for the rain.

"When the storm comes, we'll take shelter in car ports of the houses nearby, just until it passes, and then we'll return to our place in the road," he said.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was sworn in less than a month ago, following Mr Moise's assassination, vowed to disburse humanitarian aid better than in the wake of the 2010 quake.

Though billions of dollars in aid money poured into Haiti after that disaster and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, many Haitians say they saw scant benefits from the uncoordinated efforts: Government bodies were weak amid persistent shortages of food and basic goods.

"The earthquake is a great misfortune that happened to us in the middle of the hurricane season," Mr Henry said, adding that the government would not repeat "the same things" done in 2010.

REUTERS