Disasters & Accidents

Haiti earthquake death toll rises to 2,189

Port-au-Prince, Aug 18 (EFE).- The death toll from the weekend’s magnitude-7.2 earthquake in southwestern Haiti has risen to at least 2,189 people, with 12,268 injured, according to the latest official data released Wednesday.

The figure increased by 248 fatalities from the previous day, with 332 people still missing, according to the Civil Protection General Directorate.

The number of homes destroyed totals 52,953, while another 77,006 have suffered damage of varying degrees, while the most affected locality is the town of Marigot, where 500 of the 615 homes in the municipality have collapsed.

Authorities estimate that some 650,000 people are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, which represents about 40 percent of the population of the three departments most affected by the earthquake in the southwestern peninsula of the country.

The region most affected by the earthquake is the South department, where 1,832 fatalities have been recorded, and its capital city of Les Cayes, with about 100,000 residents, is the urban nucleus with the highest number of fatalities.

Saturday’s earthquake struck near the town of Petit Trou de Nippes at 8.30 am local time at a depth of around 10 kilometers.

It is the second deadliest in the last 25 years in Latin America, after the devastating 2010 earthquake that occurred in the Caribbean country, which killed about 300,000 people. EFE

mp-mm/tw

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