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PORT-DE-PEIX, Haiti – The balance sheet of an earthquake of 5.9 on Haiti this weekend has risen to at least 15 people, with 333 wounded, according to updated figures released Monday by the authorities, while rescue teams were working to help victims scared by strong aftershocks.
The Haitian civil protection agency announced in a statement that it would soon deploy 70 soldiers in the most affected North West and Artibonite provinces, noting that she had already sent 14 soldiers as well as nurses and doctors in the area over the weekend.
Thousands of people on the north coast of Haiti have dragged mattresses and chairs on the outside, fearing new aftershocks. Many wondered how they would rebuild after the earthquake on Saturday night and a powerful 5.2 magnitude Sunday that had residents of the coastal city of Port-de-Paix and elsewhere worried about returning to their cracked brickwork homes. afraid to collapse.
Among them was Marc-Sena Doctor, a 24-year-old carpenter whose girlfriend died in the earthquake.
"Now I have a 9-month-old baby left without any help," he said. "I'm still crying, I do not know what I'm going to do without her."
The walls of the room that the couple had been renting for a year have collapsed and he and the baby have been sleeping outside since the earthquake.
Sunday's aftershock provoked panic in the streets, where relief teams were helping the victims after paruming houses and ruined buildings in several cities. The US geological survey indicated that the epicenter of the aftershock was located 15.8 kilometers north-northwest of Port-de-Paix.
Among the dead, there was a 5-year-old boy crushed by his house that was collapsing.
Impoverished Haiti, where many live in precarious conditions, is vulnerable to earthquakes and hurricanes. An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 of a much larger magnitude damaged much of the capital in 2010 and killed around 300,000 people.
Etanvie Dimorne, a 50-year-old bricklayer, said people had to rebuild stronger because of the earthquakes that struck Haiti. He lost his home on Saturday after the earthquake and now sleeps under a tarpaulin in someone's yard.
"Last night, it rained," he said. "I have to sleep in difficult conditions."
President Jovenel Moise urged the population to donate blood and asked international humanitarian aid agencies to coordinate with local agencies to avoid duplication. The government has not provided estimates of damages.
The USGS said the Saturday earthquake hit downtown Port-de-Paix, 19 kilometers northwest of the capital, about 219 kilometers from the capital, Port-au-Prince.
This was slightly felt in the capital, as well as in the neighboring Dominican Republic and in eastern Cuba, where no damage was reported.
In Haiti, officials have struggled to consolidate the buildings despite the two main fault lines along Hispaniola, the island shared with the Dominican Republic.
The damage of the temblors was visible. In Gros-Morne, a bed was covered with rubble, while the exterior walls of some houses were cracked. Others inclined at precarious angles.
Pierre Jacques Baudre, a farmer and father of seven, said he was afraid to return home after the collapse of a wall built of stone and cement.
"The house can fall at any time," he said.
The civil protection agency issued a statement that houses were reported to have been destroyed in Port-de-Paix, Gros-Morne, Chansolme and Turtle Island.
Damage has also been reported at the Saint-Michel de Plaisance church and at the police station in Port-de-Paix. Parts of a hospital and auditorium collapsed in Gros-Morne, where MP Alcide Audne told The Associated Press that two of the deaths had occurred.
