Haiti earthquake: 16 survivors pulled from under rubble three days after quake

At least 16 people were pulled alive from under a collapsed building three days after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti.

Rescuers removed nine bodies from the same debris during the operation in Brefet, a town in Les Cayes.

There have been 2,189 deaths, 12,268 people injured and dozens still missing after the quake shook the southwestern part of Haiti on Saturday.

The now collapsed structure was previously functional and served as the regional office of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission for Stability in the area.

The project ran from 2004 to 2017 to support Haiti in recovery and reconstruction after the 2010 earthquake which killed at least 220,000 people and devastated the country’s infrastructure and economy.

Tensions have been growing over the slow pace of aid reaching victims of Saturday’s earthquake which was trailed by a drenching tropical depression on the Caribbean country.

Angry crowds massed at collapsed buildings in the city, demanding tarps to create temporary shelters after Tropical Storm Grace brought heavy rain at the beginning of the week.

The earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged more than 12,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless, according to official estimates.

Aftermath of a 7.2 magnitude quake in Les Cayes
People rest outside their home after tremors shook buildings, following Saturday's 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti
REUTERS

Schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged. At the small airport in Les Cayes, throngs of people gathered outside the fence on Wednesday when an aid flight arrived and crews began loading boxes into waiting trucks.

One of a small squad of Haitian national police, outfitted in military-style uniforms and posted at the airport to guard the aid shipments, fired two warnings shots to disperse a group of young men.

Two dozen boxes of rice and pre-measured bagged meal kits were one of the first food deliveries from local authorities to reach a tent encampment set up in one of the poorest areas of Les Cayes.

Most of the one-storey, cinderblock, tin-roofed homes in the area were damaged or destroyed by the quake.

But the shipment was clearly not enough for the hundreds who have lived under tents and tarps for five days.

Aftermath of a 7.2 magnitude quake in Les Cayes
Others sit outside their home after the quake in Les Cayes, Haiti
REUTERS

“It’s not enough, but we’ll do everything we can to make sure everybody gets at least something,” said Vladimir Martino, a resident of the camp who took charge of the distribution.

International aid workers on the ground said hospitals in the worst-hit areas are mostly incapacitated and that there is a desperate need for medical equipment.

But the government told at least one foreign organisation that it did not need assistance from hundreds of its medical volunteers.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Wednesday that his administration will work to not “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid.”

Haiti Earthquake

Aftermath of a 7.2 magnitude quake in Les Cayes
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It referenced the chaos that followed Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government was accused of not getting all of the money raised by donors to the people who needed it.

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