Storm compounds Haiti's pain

LES CAYES, Haiti－Tropical Depression Grace swept over Haiti with drenching rains just two days after an earthquake battered the impoverished Caribbean nation, adding to the misery of thousands who lost loved ones, suffered injuries or become homeless. The back-to-back emergencies have forced overwhelmed hospitals and rescuers to work even harder.

After nightfall on Monday, heavy rain and strong winds whipped at the country's southwestern area that was hit hardest by Saturday's powerful quake. Officials warned that rainfall could reach 38 centimeters in some areas before the storm moved on. The capital Port-au-Prince also saw heavy rains.

The storm arrived on Sunday, when the country's Civil Protection Agency raised the death toll from the earthquake to more than 1,400. An update on Monday put the number of injured at around 6,900, with many of them waiting for medical help as they lie outside in wilting heat.

Grace's rain and winds raised the threat of mudslides and flash flooding as it slowly passed by southwestern Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula on Monday night, before heading toward Jamaica and southeastern Cuba on Tuesday.

The quake nearly wrecked some towns in the southwest in the latest disaster to befall the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

The storm compounded the difficulties for doctors, who battled on Monday in makeshift tents to save the lives of the hundreds of quake victims that could not be treated at overwhelmed hospitals.

Saturday's 7.2 magnitude quake brought down tens of thousands of buildings in the impoverished country, which is still recovering from another major temblor 11 years ago and the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise, last month.

More than 37,300 houses have been destroyed in the earthquake, along with dozens of churches, hotels, and schools suffering that fate or left seriously damaged, Haitian authorities said on Monday afternoon.

They said the death toll of 1,419, as it stood on Monday, was likely to rise. Data circulating among aid groups indicated over 450 additional deaths had been logged in the hardest hit administrative department.

At a news conference, the director of civil protection agency, Jerry Chandler, underscored the importance of the international support that Haiti is receiving.

"We continue to work with our friends from the international community. Many of them have offered to come in our support," Chandler said.

The areas in and around the city of Les Cayes, some 150 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, suffered the most damage, putting enormous strain on hospitals, some of which were badly damaged by the quake.

Collapsed cement buildings lined the main street of the seafront city of 100,000 people.

Dozens of men dug out rubble from a collapsed hotel, where the owner died in the quake, according to residents.

Overwhelmed hospitals

The city's general hospital was overwhelmed, with doctors and nurses attending patients in the tents set up in its crowded parking lot.

Dozens lay on beds and mattresses on the grass outside the hospital. Inside, patients were on stretchers on the floor or on cots in crowded rooms with relatives by their sides.

Babies were being transported out of the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit over concerns that the building was unsafe after the quake, a source said in a Reuters report.

Pediatrician Lucette Gedeon had been volunteering at the makeshift neonatal ward since Saturday and said the hospital had run out of antibiotics and anesthetics.

"There have been babies that came in needing limbs amputated after they were trapped under the rubble," Gedeon said.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said there was no time to lose.

"From this Monday, we will move faster. Aid provision is going to be accelerated," he wrote on Twitter. "We will multiply efforts tenfold to reach as many victims as possible with aid."

Port-au-Prince's airport on Monday bustled with medics and aid workers scrambling to get to the south with supplies.

Agencies - Xinhua