Death toll from Haiti’s weekend earthquake rises to 1,941

By MARK STEVENSON and EVENS SANON
Associated Press

LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — Officials in Haiti have raised the death toll from a powerful weekend earthquake to more than 1,900. The Civil Protection Agency announced the numbers on Tuesday, when strong winds and rains dealt by Tropical Storm Grace forced a temporary halt in rescue and recovery efforts. The agency raised the death toll to 1,941, and the number of injured to 9,900. The devastation is centered in the country’s southwestern area, where health care has reached capacity and people have lost homes and loved ones. Volunteers and rescuers have continued to pull bodies from the rubble as Haitians’ patience runs out. Prior to the earthquake, the country was already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, gang violence and the July assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.