Havana – The headquarters of the Central Direction and the residences of the Cubans working on cooperation programs with Haiti has remained intact after Tuesday earthquake in Port au Prince. The building, the Anexo, is only 100 meters from the ruined Presidential served to provide first aid to the victims in the first hours after the quake, according to a report sent by Raymondo Gomez, Cuban News Agency’s special correspondent in Port au Prince.
Hundreds of people with different types of injuries were treated by barely a dozen Cuban doctors who were in the facility when the 7.0-degree earthquake struck the country.
Immediately afterwards, other Cuban doctors, paramedics and nurses, members of the medical mission working in other areas of the country were called in for back-up.
From Cuba, a group of health experts from the Henry Reeve Contingent for Emergency situations and others who were on vacation back in Cuba from international missions were sent to Haiti on Wednesday.
Without delay, they set up to work in the Anexo and in two other facilities that were fitted out as field hospitals next to the destroyed Cathedral and in the center of the city.
It is hard to quantify the magnitude of the disaster suffered by the Haitian people, but several locals affirm that this earthquake is the second strongest that hit the country in more than one century.
Aircrafts carrying aid from different countries, including Cuba, Venezuela and China, started to arrive at the international terminal under extreme conditions. Due to the absence of staff in the control towers and landing and takeoff guides on the runways, the pilots have had to coordinate the landing maneuvers among themselves.
Just before dark on Wednesday, five aircrafts carrying humanitarian aid over flew the Haitian capital at the same time trying to land.
Fortunately, no air accidents have been reported so far.
