Tropical Storm Grace approaches Haiti, rescue works fastened

With a tropical depression approaching Haiti, doctors and aid workers are rushing to get flights or transportation to reach areas destroyed by a major earthquake.

Port-au-Prince Airport was packed with doctors and aid workers all day Monday, with domestic and private charter flights filled with humanitarian teams and deliveries to the south.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday killed at least 1,419 people and injured more than 6,900 as thousands of homes and buildings in the country collapsed. The poverty-ridden country was still recovering from the massive earthquake that happened 11 years ago.

The quake was centred about 125km (78 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince. The areas in and around the town of Les Cayes suffered the biggest hit, putting enormous strain on local hospitals, some of which were severely damaged.

After sunset on Sunday, Les Cayes was darkened by intermittent blackouts, and many people slept outside again, snapping small transistor radios tuned to news, terrified of further aftershocks.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a state of emergency for a month, saying the first aid convoys organized by the government began to move aid to areas where cities were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed.

“From this Monday on, we are going faster. Aid work is being accelerated, "he wrote on Twitter. "We will multiply the efforts tenfold to reach as many victims as possible with assistance."

Les Cayes resident Jennie Auguste, who was injured in the earthquake, laid on a mattress at an airport on Sunday while waiting for a bed at a local hospital or a seat on a plane carrying the injured to the Haiti capital.

"There was nothing. No help, nothing from the government," Auguste's sister, Bertrande, told media on Sunday as Haitians were still trying to do everything around them as the death toll from the disaster rose.

Access to the region was complicated by months of political unrest in Haiti, which left the gangs in control of important entry routes to parts of the country.

The United Nations has called for a "humanitarian corridor" to allow aid to pass through band-held territories.

Aid workers rushed to beat the arrival of the Tropical Depression Grace, which moved early Monday west-northwest of the south coast of Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the neighboring Dominican Republic.

According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) projections, the Grace will pass directly through areas that were directly hit by the earthquake, and can overcome it with heavy rain. Sky over Port-au-Prince was still clear early Monday.

Many Haitians who lost their homes slept outside, many traumatized by memories of a magnitude 7 earthquake 11 years ago that struck far closer to Port-au-Prince.