As this week marks a week of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that shook southern Haiti, the chances of finding victims of landslides alive are declining, while despair is growing in the most affected population and, with this, the looting of food trucks.
Authorities have not updated the numbers of casualties since Wednesday, and it is assumed that they will have varied with regard to the 2,189 dead, 12,268 injured and 332 missing reported then.
A hint of hope fading
The possibility of finding four people alive under the rubble of a house in the city of Les Cayes, the most affected by the earthquake, kept this Saturday hundreds of curious people watching the work of experienced volunteers to rescue the Topos brigade , from Mexico.
The brigade, made up of eight experts and backed by two Haitian rescuers, began work at the scene at 9pm on Friday after detecting four possible survivors using a scanner, but after 16 hours of hard work they withdrew from the scene.
Before making one last reading the team gave way to the machines to remove some of the rubble and to be able to go a little further into what was left of the structure with the life locator to confirm the “presumed positives”. since the search device may be altered by several factors.
The leader of the group, Luis Alba, was optimistic about the chances of finding people alive “and more in the case of Haitian people, which is very hard,” he told Efe.
“It is already proven in the 2010 earthquake, that after more than a week old people came out and students came out, teachers came out. Of course, we have all the faith put in,” said the specialist, who insisted that he did not want to generate false hopes.
This time there has not been a happy ending, but the moles are not dying and today they will start a new search operation in another demolished building without stopping to rest, as time plays against possible survivors.
LACK OF HUMANITARIAN AID
Time is also running out for thousands of people in need of humanitarian aid, a situation that has prompted truck looting, which occurred this Friday and this Saturday.
The Haitian government has condemned this Saturday “vehemently” the attacks, as well as acts of looting, in the areas of Camp-Perrin, Duchity, Rivière Glace, against trucks of the Food For The Poor organization transporting humanitarian aid in the yesterday.
There was also at least one attempted assault on another World Food Program (WFP) heavy vehicle on Friday, and this Saturday the most desperate population continued to plunder food by force.
At the Saint Jean des Cayes school a violent mob stripped a truck without badges containing mineral water, pasta and condensed milk, Among other articles and, in the presence of cameras, they threw glass bottles at journalists.
Various humanitarian organizations and governments in different countries continue to send aid that is coming too slowly to alleviate the needs of so many people, in a country with much of its undernourished population.
THE EARTH continues to tremble
After seven days, the aftershocks, of varying intensity, continue to be felt in Les Cayes, and many families are still sleeping on the streets even though their homes have not been completely destroyed.
Homemade awnings and tents, made with sticks, fabrics and plastics continue to give shelter to people all over the city, especially around the Gabion Stadium, where a camp has been set up that has housed hundreds of homeless people since the quake.
According to the latest data provided by Civil Protection, 52,953 homes were destroyed by the strong quake and 77,000 were damaged, while 650,000 people need urgent humanitarian aid.