DISASTER response charities in south Wiltshire have been closely monitoring the situation in Haiti after a devastating earthquake hit over the weekend.

Serve On and RE:ACT are both based in Chilmark and have volunteers able to respond and support communities with disaster response.

The 7.2 earthquake struck at 8.30am local time on Saturday August 14, with the epicentre at the south-west coast, near to Saint Louis-du-Sud and 125kms west of the capital Port-au-Prince. The country has also been battered by Tropical Storm Grace.

Serve On’s international response team volunteers, who have search and rescue capabilities, have been on standby since the weekend – ready to respond if called upon.

However, Serve On operation director Dan Cooke said the charity was expecting to stand down later today (August 18). He said: “Having worked in Haiti on a number of occasions we know how desperate that situation will be. On this occasion the government didn’t want teams coming early. The window to be a rescue team has now closed. What they are after is large scale relief and the ongoing humanitarian needs assessment.”

“The Serve On team has been ready. We have been sharing information in country and incoming people from the UN,” added Dan.

“We are disappointed we don’t go straight away because that is when we deliver our best stuff. As terrible as it is the death toll sits at just under 2,000 at the moment. In 2010 when we went to Haiti it was a quarter of a million. Our initial fears were something the same as that. In a small blessing the epicentre is not in the cities it is further west. It is still a massive humanitarian problem. It is very much now about shelter, medical and feeding and hygiene.”

He said there were large government teams who were able to provide that support and said: “We’ll probably take the difficult decision to stand down later today. But we will be monitoring what takes place.”

The charity’s community resilience team from Salisbury has also been providing support with the operations room.

Officials have said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake has left more than 7,000 homes destroyed and nearly 5,000 damaged from the quake, leaving some 30,000 families homeless.

RE:ACT operations response manager Paul Taylor, said: “It is with much sadness that we witness the scenes playing out in Haiti following Saturday’s earthquake and the arrival of Storm Grace. RE:ACT continues to monitor the situation along with other members of the international humanitarian community. So far, we have yet to receive a request for assistance.

“I was in Les Cayes in 2016 responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew and the people gave us so much despite having so little. It’s heartbreaking to see them experience another disaster. We have many friends and colleagues on the island and our thoughts are with them and all those affected by this tragedy.”

 

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