haiti in crisis
Hospitals in Haiti say they can't handle the thousands of patients injured in earthquake
The death toll from Saturday's 7.2-magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti hit 1,941 on Tuesday, with more missing and likely buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
The quake also left 9,915 people injured. Les Cayes, 90 miles west of the capital Port-au-Prince, was hit hard by the earthquake and a tropical storm that dropped heavy rain on the country overnight. Its hospital, which has set up makeshift tents outside, is unable to "handle all the patients," director Peterson Gede told Reuters. "And we have been receiving supplies, but it's not enough."
Lanette Nuel said her daughter, a 26-year-old mother of two, was crushed by debris that fell during the earthquake. She was brought to the hospital on Monday afternoon, but "there weren't enough doctors and now she's dead," Nuel said, as she sat next to her daughter's body under a white sheet.
At least 37,312 houses were destroyed by the quake, and the United Nations Children's Fund estimates that there are now half a million Haitian kids with limited or no access to shelter, health care, clean water, or nutritious food. Most are living in tent cities that do not have bathrooms or enough food and medical supplies. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the United Nations said it has allocated $8 million to go toward getting emergency shelters and clean water to Haiti.