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U.S. Sends Helicopters to Haiti for Earthquake Rescue Efforts

Estados Unidos envía 8 helicópteros a Haití para labores de rescate tras terremoto

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The United States announced on Tuesday the dispatch of eight helicopters, as well as two additional ships, to Haiti to reinforce rescue and assistance efforts following the weekend earthquake that left more than 1,400 dead and thousands injured.

The U.S. government has pledged to maintain assistance for Haiti, coordinated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), with several units with 65 search and rescue experts and hundreds of pounds of medical equipment already on the scene.

“We have requested the unique capabilities of the Department of Defense to support the response to the earthquake that struck southwest Haiti,” Sarah Charles of USAID’s Office of Humanitarian Assistance said in a telephone press briefing.

The helicopters will join Coast Guard vessels already deployed to the area.

The director of USAID, Samantha Power, indicated today that in the last hours the American team has transferred 40 injured people in critical condition to hospitals in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

This Monday, Civil Protection, the agency in charge of organizing the response to the earthquake in Haiti, reported that the death toll rose to 1,419 people, while another 6,900 were injured, mostly in the southwest of the country.

It has also destroyed nearly 37,300 homes and caused structural damage to 46,000 others, as well as 25 medical centers, according to authorities.

On the other hand, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that flash floods and landslides are possible in the Dominican Republic and Haiti due to tropical depression Grace.

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