By midday on Monday, heavy rain was already lashing the capital, Port-au-Prince, and flash floods and mudslides were expected to affect road travel. One of the worst-hit towns is Les Cayes, a seaport about 120 miles southwest of the capital, which has about 100,000 residents. Sterens Yppolyte, a medical intern at the Les Cayes’ Immaculate Conception hospital, said its doctors were struggling to cope with the influx of injured patients from the town and, increasingly, the rural area around it. People are really scared.”Civil defence authorities say at least 13,000 houses were destroyed by the quake and nearly 6,000 people wounded. “Right now people are traumatised because they don’t know what will happen in the coming hours, days or weeks,” said Thomas Jean Verlin, a 31-year-old teacher from Les Cayes.

Source: The Guardian August 16, 2021 16:39 UTC