Aug. 16 (UPI) — The death toll from the powerful earthquake that rocked Haiti over the weekend has killed 1,300 people and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes, officials said.
The 7.2-magnitude quake was recorded on Saturday. There were almost 1,100 deaths in the South administrative region, almost 250 in the Grand’Anse and Nippes regions and a couple in the Northwest.
The quake destroyed almost 14,000 homes and damaged another 14,000, officials say.
Hospitals were overwhelmed Monday, and roads that would normally carry vital supplies were blocked.
“When it comes to medical needs, this is our biggest urgency,” Prime Minister Ariel Henry said, according to CNN. “We have started to send medications and medical personnel to the facilities that are affected.”
The earthquake was felt in other nations in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands and Cuba.
In Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti, the epicenter of the quake, phone lines were down, the Pan American Health Organization reported Sunday.
Tropical Depression Grace is expected to pass over Haiti later Monday or early Tuesday, potentially leading to flooding and mudslides. The entire coast of Haiti was under a tropical storm watch.
Haiti has been grappling with political unrest in the aftermath of the assassination of its President Jovenel Moise last month.
The nation hadn’t fully recovered from a 2010 earthquake that killed more than 100,000.