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A drone video captured the brutal devastation left by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti on Saturday.
Images shot over a residential area in the Caves appeared to show rescuers painstakingly scouring the variegated ruins of a building.
Furniture and air conditioning units could be seen tangled in the twisted concrete wreckage.
Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said Sunday that 13,694 houses were destroyed and 13,785 were damaged by the earthquake.
Saturday’s earthquake struck 78 miles west of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to the US Geological Survey.
With at least 1,297 dead and more than 5,700 injured, the country is now bracing for a tropical depression that is expected to strike the Caribbean island nation earlier this week.
Flash floods and mudslides could occur in Haiti as early as Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Between five and 10 inches of rain is expected to hit areas damaged by this weekend’s earthquake, according to Elizabeth Riley, president of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).
Sixty-five first responders and four dogs with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Service de Virginie landed in Haiti on Sunday in hopes of finding more survivors, officials said.
According to the United States Agency for International Development, they brought 52,000 pounds of tools, including hydraulic equipment for breaking concrete, saws, torches and drills, as well as medical supplies for their run in order to reach people still trapped in the rubble.
The earthquake struck less than six weeks after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, which had sown further unrest in the impoverished nation.
Haiti is struggling to contain Covid-19 with few doctors and nurses vaccinated, so far, against the deadly virus.
All rescuers entering Haiti via CDEMA will need to be fully vaccinated before setting foot there, Riley said.
It was also this requirement when CDEMA earlier this year organized relief efforts to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines after a volcanic eruption and to the South American nation of Guyana, following massive flooding.
“We have a ‘do no harm’ principle when we undertake our deployments and, as such, we seek to deploy people who are fully immunized,” said Riley. “I am happy to say that everyone on these deployments (in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Guyana) returned home safe and sound.”
Austin mullen contributed.
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