Haiti earthquake news today Death toll raised to 1297 as rescuers race to find thousands feared buried beneath rubble

AT least 1,297 people are confirmed dead after a huge 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit western Haiti on Saturday.

The quake struck 8 km from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 km, the US Geological Survey said.

More than 5,700 are injured and many more are still missing.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.

USGS has estimated “thousands of fatalities” are likely and “tens of thousands of injuries in poor mountainous communities" and has issued a "red alert"

Follow our live blog below for all the latest news and updates...

JOE BIDEN’S RESPONSE

President Joe Biden has authorized an immediate US response to the earthquake on Saturday afternoon and named US AID Administrator Samantha Power as coordinator of the effort.

It came shortly before Haitian Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry declared an official state of emergency.

He confirmed the motion in a tweet, writing: “We will make the necessary arrangements to assist people affected by the earthquake in the Southern Peninsula.

“We must show a lot of solidarity with regard to the emergency. The government will declare a state of emergency. We will act quickly.”

CHURCH COLLAPSE

A church reportedly collapsed under the strain of the quake in the southwestern town of Les Anglais while a ceremony was apparently underway.

One clip uploaded to Twitter on Saturday afternoon showed a young girl and boy being hauled from the wreck of a collapsed building by a group of good Samaritans welding tools.

The children looked traumatized and fatigued, with the girl unable to stand on her own.

SIGNIFIGANT DAMAGE

Images posted to social media showed significant damage to buildings including collapsed homes and rubble splayed across the road.

French-language newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported on Saturday that “The majority of hotels and churches on the south coast of Haiti, which are often the most important buildings in cities, have collapsed or suffered significant damage.”

Economic losses could range in the tens of millions, USGS reports.

‘RED ALERT’

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.

USGS has estimated “thousands of fatalities” are likely and “tens of thousands of injuries in poor mountainous communities” and has issued a “red alert”

“High casualties are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” a statement from the agency released around an hour after the quake said.

“Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response.”

Jerry Chandler, Haiti’s director of civil protection, confirmed deaths had occurred but said he doesn’t “yet have an exact toll”, adding that officials are “still collecting information.”

NAOMI OSAKA VOWS TOURNAMENT MONEY TO HAITI RELIEF

Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break. I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors blood is strong we’ll keep rising 🇭🇹❤️🙏🏾

â€" NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) August 14, 2021

RESCUERS SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS

MAGNITUDE OF EARTHQUAKE

An earthquake with a 5.8 magnitude shook Haiti on Saturday night â€" less than 24 hours after the country was hit by a massive 7.2 quake that has so far claimed at least 724 lives.

The 5.8 magnitude quake was measured at a depth 40 kilometers, and the tremor was felt some 38 km northwest of Les Cayes, according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).

HAITI ALREADY HIT BY COVID

The reports of overwhelmed hospitals come as Haiti struggles with the pandemic and a lack of resources to deal with it.

The country of 11 million people received its first batch of U.S.-donated coronavirus vaccines only last month via a United Nations program for low-income countries.

THINGS COULD GET WORSE

Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency has warned things could get worse with the arrival of Tropical Depression Grace which is expected to hit the island tonight.

The agency predicted Haitians must expect strong winds, heavy rain, rough seas, landslides and flooding.

The quake on Saturday has already killed at least 1,297 people with another 5,700 injured and thousands have lost their homes.

SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS

There is a shortage of doctors adding to the problem of hospitals being overwhelmed.

Officials in Les Cayes believe there are only about 30 doctors for about 1 million people, the New York Times reports.

Many hospitals and clinics were heavily damaged and struggling to cope with the number of casualties.

MEDICAL NEED IS ‘BIGGEST URGENCY’ AS HOSPITALS OVERWHELMED

Haitian Prime Minister and acting President Ariel Henry has said that “medical needs” is his country’s “biggest urgency”.

“When it comes to medical needs, this is our biggest urgency. We have started to send medications and medical personnel to the facilities that are affected,” he said. “For the people who need urgent special care, we have evacuated a certain number of them, and we will evacuate some more today and tomorrow.”

The devastating earthquake has left hospitals unable to cope as they try to deal with the number of casualites.

An administrator at Hopital Saint Antoine told CNN: “There are a lot of people coming in… We don’t have enough supplies:”

HORRIFIC DAMAGE

Heavy damage was reported in the center of the city of Jeremie, home to around 200,000 people and composed primarily of single-story buildings.

The damage in the city of Les Cayes also appeared to be significant, including the collapse of a multi-story hotel.

Amid ongoing fear of aftershocks, virtually the entire population of that city spent Saturday night outdoors, sleeping in front of their homes â€" or what was left of them.

USAID SENDING SEARCH AND RESCUE CREWS

The United States Agency for International Development is sending a search and rescue team to help search for survivors after the devastating earthquake.

“This 65-person deployment brings 52,000 pounds of specialized tools, equipment & medical supplies to assist in search operations,” a USAID administrator tweeted.

Update: at the request of Haiti’s government, @USAID has deployed an urban search & rescue team to join our #Haiti earthquake disaster response team. This 65-person deployment brings 52,000 pounds of specialized tools, equipment & medical supplies to assist in search operations.

â€" Samantha Power (@PowerUSAID) August 15, 2021

SOUTHWESTERN HAITI WORST AFFECTED

Southwestern parts of Haiti appear to have borne the brunt of the earthquake, especially around the city of Les Cayes.

The latest shocking figures say at least 724 people died with an unknown number of people missing and at least 2,800 people have been injured, officials say.

Rescuers are picking through rubble in a desperate search for any survivors.

HAITIAN AUTHORITIES FEAR EXTREME DAMAGE

Haitian politicians and authorities fear the “awful” aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the island today.

Renald Lubérice, the general secretary of Haiti’s ministerial council, tweeted in French: “The first images that have reached me are awful.

“The earthquake has caused a great deal of damage in the south. Hopefully there isn’t major loss of life.”

WHAT PARTS OF HAITI WERE AFFECTED?

While the full extent of the destruction the earthquake inflicted it appears that two cities, Les Cayes and Jeremie, located in Haiti’s southern peninsula, were the worst hit.

Both areas reported major devastation.

Phone lines were down in Petit Trou de Nippes, the epicenter of the quake. No news emerged immediately from that city, leaving Haitian officials to fear for the worst.

ROADS SPLIT IN HAITI

One video showed a Haitian road split with cracks after the earthquake.

LOOK: A road was left split open in Haiti after Saturday's powerful earthquake.

Haiti's Civil Defense on Sunday said at least 724 have been killed pic.twitter.com/WOXu7et8kH

â€" Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) August 15, 2021

TENNIS STAR OFFERS TO DONATE PRIZE MONEY TO HAITI

Tennis star Naomi Osaka, whose father’s family are from Haiti, expressed her sorrow about the quake, saying she would give all the prize money she won at a tournament next week to the relief efforts.

“I know our ancestors blood is strong,” she said on Twitter, “we’ll keep rising.”

Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break. I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors blood is strong we’ll keep rising 🇭🇹❤️🙏🏾

â€" NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) August 14, 2021

THOUSANDS OF FATALITIES EXPECTED

At least 1,297 people have died and 5,700 others are injured as buildings tumbled into rubble after the magnitude 7.2 earthquake.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.

US Geological Survey has estimated “thousands of fatalities” are likely and “tens of thousands of injuries in poor mountainous communities” and has issued a “red alert”

“High casualties are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” a statement from the agency released around an hour after the quake said.

“Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response.”

SATURDAY’S EARTHQUAKE LINKED TO ONE IN 2010

The earthquake that struck Haiti on Saturday morning occurred on the same system of faults as the one that devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, in January 2010. 

Both quakes struck on an east-west fault line at the convergence of two tectonic plates, The New York Times reports.

Susan E. Hough, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey who studied the 2010 earthquake, said there was no doubt that it and the one Saturday were linked.

“It’s well established that you do have this domino concept,” she said, where the energy released by one earthquake alters the stress patterns elsewhere along the fault line. “But we don’t have a crystal ball that tells us which domino is going to fall next.”

PICTURED: LOCALS FORCED TO SPEND NIGHT ON THE STREETS

GANGS HINDERING RELIEF EFFORTS

Humanitarian workers said gang activity in the seaside district of Martissant, just west of the Haitian capital, was complicating relief efforts.

“Nobody can travel through the area,” Ndiaga Seck, a UNICEF spokesman in Port-au-Prince, told the AP. “We can only fly over or take another route.”

Seck said information about deaths and damage was slow coming to Port-au-Prince because of spotty internet service, but UNICEF planned to send medical supplies to two hospitals in the south, in Les Cayes and Jeremie.

POPE CALLS FOR WORLD ‘SOLIDARITY’

At the Vatican, Pope Francis urged nations to send quick aid. “

May solidarity from everyone lighten the consequences of the tragedy,” he told pilgrims and tourists at his blessing this morning in St. Peter’s Square.

HAITIANS URGENTLY NEED MEDICAL HELP

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said humanitarian needs are acute, with many Haitians urgently needing health care, clean water and shelter. Children who have been separated from parents need protection, she said.

Alluding to the 2010 earthquake that ravaged Haiti’s capital, killing tens of thousands, Fore said: “Little more than a decade on, Haiti is reeling once again. And this disaster coincides with political instability, rising gang violence, alarmingly high rates of malnutrition among children, and the Covid-19 pandemic â€" for which Haiti has received just 500,000 vaccine doses, despite requiring far more.”

The country of 11 million people received its first batch of U.S.-donated coronavirus vaccines only last month via a United Nations program for low-income countries.

Medical workers from across the region were scrambling to help as hospitals in Les Cayes started running out of space to perform surgeries.

“Basically, they need everything,” said Dr. Inobert Pierre, a pediatrician with the nonprofit Health Equity International, which oversees St. Boniface Hospital, about two hours from Les Cayes.

AID AGENCIES URGED NOT TO SET UP MAKESHIFT CAMPS

The Haiti government has appealed to aid organizations against setting up makeshift camps and urged them to work through the planning ministry, an apparent attempt to avoid the mistakes made following the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people.

At Port-au-Prince airport, international aid workers, doctors and rescue workers waited to board flights to Les Cayes.

Floris Nesi, a doctor heading to help the relief efforts, said the tragedy has hit Haitians at a time of economic and political turmoil, making many of them even more vulnerable than in 2010.

“So we need to assist people more than after the previous earthquake,” he told Reuters in the airport.

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