Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Never Any Shortage of Trials and Tribulations for Haiti

Buildings and cars were damaged in Les Cayes, Haiti.
Buildings and cars were damaged in Les Cayes, Haiti.
"I'm the only surgeon over there [Les Cayes, 160 km west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti]."
"I would like to operate on ten people today, but I just don't have the supplies."
Dr.Edward Destine, orthopedic surgeon, Les Cayes
 
"Basically, they need everything."
"Many of the patients have open wounds and they have been exposed to not-so-clean elements."
"We anticipate a lot of infections."
Dr.Inobert Pierre, pediatrician, Health Equity International, St.Boniface Hospital
 
"Accessibility for humanitarian response and evacuation of wounded people to the capital remains challenging as the main road leading to the affected areas is still under gangs' control."
"Negotiations for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor are ongoing."
UNICEF spokesperson 

"We went to the hospital with the other victims, but there weren't enough doctors to attend to us."
"Now we're hoping to get to Port-au-Prince for treatment [for her 71-year-old father with two broken legs and stepmother with one broken leg; caught under falling masonry in their house collapse]."
Jeanette Pierre, post-earthquake Haiti
A woman carries her child as she walks in the remains of her home destroyed by Saturday´s 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021.
A woman carries her child as she walks in the remains of her home destroyed by Saturday´s 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021.  Joseph Odelyn–AP
 
The U.S. National Hurricane Center alerted Haiti, while it awaits the arrival of a cyclone -- tropical depression Grace one level down from a tropical storm -- that it is vulnerable to heavy rainfall, flash flooding and mudslides in the coming days. This, to follow hard on a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the island of Hispaniola which Haiti shares with the the Dominican Republic, several days ago.

The arrival of the tropical storm will interfere with rescue efforts, making it even more complicated in the additional threat of flooding and mudslides to find people trapped under rubble. There are hundreds of people 'missing' since the tremblor that killed 1,297 people and injured over 5,700 people and the certainty that the plight of Haitians is about to increase with two natural disasters falling simultaneously represents a true horror story.

In response to the emergency, medical workers countrywide are converging on Les Cayes to give aid to the affected area, even as hospitals have no more space to perform badly needed operations in the area hardest hit, Les Cayes, where officials estimate that 30 doctors serve a population of a million people in Haiti's western region. Patients have been attended by medical staff in tents on the hospital grounds with space unavailable inside the hospital.

The services of only two ambulances able to transport four patients at a time further complicate the situation of a journey where gangs erected roadblocks. Some people in dire straits have been airlifted out to hospitals in the nation's capital. The quake destroyed 13,600 buildings, damaging another like number and trapping people under rubble. 

Homeless families are sleeping outdoors on mattresses they dragged to football pitches, and others take refuge at the local airport. The 2010 earthquake and following tsunami killed over 200,000 people in Haiti, a disaster the country has not yet recovered from. Political stability continues to elude Haiti; only a month ago its president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in his home by "foreign mercenaries".

A one-month state of emergency was declared by the prime minister who ordered government aid convoys to begin helping those areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed. Two Mexican military aircraft transporting 15.4 tons of food, medicine and water landed Monday in Haiti, and other nations are sending help to the country that has continued to experience excesses of natural disasters.

A helicopter transporting medical personnel from the Haitian capital to the quake zone, evacuating injured people back to Port-au-Prince is aiding, while additional aircraft and ships were on their way, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Tropical Depression Grace is predicted to reach Haiti on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that although Grace had weakened from tropical storm strength Sunday, it still posed a threat to bring heavy rain, flooding and landslides.

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posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, August 18, 2021

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