AP Photos

View Original

Tensions grow in Haiti over slow pace of aid after quake

Tensions have been growing in Haiti over the slow pace of aid reaching victims of a powerful weekend earthquake that killed more than 2,100 people and was trailed by the drenching rain of Tropical Storm Grace.

Aid has trickled in, but distributing food and getting urgent medical care to those in need is another matter amid the deep poverty, insecurity and lack of basic infrastructure that characterized Haiti before the back-to-back disasters.

People gather outside the Petit Pas Hotel, destroyed by the earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

An injured woman is carried to the the Immaculée Conception hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern part of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A major hospital in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where injured from the earthquake zone in the southwestern peninsula were being sent, was closed Thursday for a two-day shutdown to protest the kidnapping of two doctors, including one of the country's few orthopedic surgeons.

The tension is increasingly evident in the area hit hardest by Saturday's quake. At the small airport in the southwestern town of Les Cayes, people thronged a perimeter fence Wednesday as aid was loaded into trucks and police fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of young men.

Angry crowds also massed at collapsed buildings in the city, demanding tarps to create temporary shelters after Grace's heavy rain.

Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency late Wednesday raised the number of deaths from the earthquake to 2,189 and said 12,268 people were injured. Dozens are still missing.

People recover the body of Jean Gabriel Fortune, a longtime lawmaker and former mayor of Les Cayes, from the rubble of the Hotel Le Manguier destroyed by the earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Ralph Tedy Erol)

A man carries the body of a boy who was found in a collapsed building into the cemetery in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 17, 2021, three days after the quake. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents watch rescue efforts three days after the quake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 17, 2021, the day after the storm passed. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A woman walks in the rubble of her destroyed home as she attempts to recover belongings in Camp-Perrin, Haiti, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

The magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged more than 12,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless, according to official estimates. Schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged.

One of the first food deliveries by local authorities — a couple dozen boxes of rice and pre-measured, bagged meal kits — reached a tent encampment set up in one of the poorest areas of Les Cayes, where most of the one-story, cinderblock, tin-roofed homes were damaged or destroyed.

But the shipment was clearly insufficient for the hundreds who have lived under tents and tarps for days.

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

Gerda Francoise, 24, was one of dozens who lined up in the wilting heat for food. “I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I need something to take back to my tent,” said Francoise. “I have a child.”

International aid workers said hospitals in the worst-hit areas are mostly incapacitated, requiring many to be moved to the capital for treatment. But reaching Port-au-Prince from the southwest is difficult under normal conditions because of poor roads and gangs along the route.

Even with a supposed gang truce following the earthquake, kidnapping remains a threat — underscored by the seizure of the two doctors working at the private Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where about 50 quake victims were being treated.

A boy grimaces in pain, at the Immaculee Conception hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, three days after the quake. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People displaced by the earthquake stand under the rain of Tropical Depression Grace at a camp in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 16, 2021, two days after the quake. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Wednesday his administration will try not to “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid,” a reference to the chaos after the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government and international partners struggled to channel help to the needy amid the widespread destruction and misery.

Meanwhile, the Core Group, a coalition of key international diplomats from the U.S. and other nations that monitors Haiti, said in a statement that its members are “resolutely committed to working alongside national and local authorities to ensure that impacted people and areas receive adequate assistance as soon as possible.”

Distributing the aid to the thousands left homeless will be challenging.

“We are planning a meeting to start clearing all of the sites that were destroyed, because that will give the owner of that site at least the chance to build something temporary, out of wood, to live on that site,” said Serge Chery, head of civil defense for the Southern Province, which covers Les Cayes. “It will be easier to distribute aid if people are living at their addresses, rather than in a tent.”

Chery said an estimated 300 people are still missing.

While some officials have suggested an end to the search phase so that heavy machinery can clear the rubble, Henry appeared unwilling to move to that stage.

“Some of our citizens are still under the debris. We have teams of foreigners and Haitians working on it,” he said.

He also appealed for unity.

“We have to put our heads together to rebuild Haiti,” Henry said. “The country is physically and mentally destroyed.”

Rice is distributed to residents in Les Cayes, Haiti, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern part of the hemisphere's poorest nation on Aug. 14. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

An empty coffin is carried to a funeral home in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A woman sleeps outside in Saint-Louis-du-Sud, Haiti, Aug. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A youth cries as he waits for a sack of rice being distributed to residents in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 16, 2021, two days after the quake. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

People stand by the body of Francois Elmay, covered by a sheet at left, before placing it in a coffin after he was recovered from the rubble of a home in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

The bodies of two victims lie at the morgue of the Immaculée Conception hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern part of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents injured during the earthquake recover at the Immaculate Conception Hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti,, Aug. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

Homes lay in ruins along an earthquake-damaged road in Rampe, Haiti, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, four days after 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the southwestern part of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A youth walks away from the sea after Tropical Storm Grace swept over Port Salut, Haiti, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A boy points at a helicopter bringing aid to a neighborhood near the airport in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Earthquake-displaced people sit under a store's outdoor roofing the morning after Tropical Storm Grace swept over Les Cayes, Haiti, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, three days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

People injured in a car accident, sitting right, wait for x-rays with others injured during the earthquake at the General Hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A man crouches on the rubble of a destroyed hospital in Fleurant, Haiti, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Earthquake-displaced children huddle under a piece of plastic the morning after Tropical Storm Grace swept over Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 17, 2021, three days after the quake. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

Men work on a damaged building in Jeremie, Haiti, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A coffin under construction sits in the backyard of carpenter Chery Jeanne´s home in Les Cayes, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A traffic sign pokes out from the debris of a landslide triggered by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on the side of a road in Rampe, Haiti, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A girl plays inside a classroom where her family is staying at a school turned into a shelter for those displaced by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)


See this content in the original post

Text from AP News story, Tensions grow in Haiti over slow pace of aid after quake, by Mark Stevenson and Evens Sanon

Lead photo: People cry during the search for people missing from a collapsed home in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

See this content in the original post

Photos by Joseph Odelyn, Fernando LLano, Matias Delacroix and Ralph Tedy Erol

Follow Joseph Odelyn on Instagram

See this content in the original post

Follow Fernando Llano on Instagram

See this content in the original post

Follow Matias Delacroix on Instagram