At least 12 people were killed after a magnitude 5.9 earthquake rocked Haiti late Saturday night.
The devastating earthquake, which occurred some 12 miles north of Port-de-Paix in northwest Haiti, also left more than 100 injured, according to the Miami Herald.
Officials are expecting the death toll to rise as they deploy disaster works to the affected areas.
“I will make sure the proper state systems are fully mobilized to help the victims,” Haitian president Jovenel Moïse tweeted on Sunday.
Je suis sur place, dans les zones touchées par le séisme, afin d’apporter de l’aide à la population. Le PM est également sur les lieux pour superviser les équipes de secours et coordonner leurs actions. Je félicite cet élan de solidarité et de soutien de la part des citoyens. pic.twitter.com/KCjG6FLdBc
— Président Jovenel Moïse (@moisejovenel) October 7, 2018
Meanwhile, according to Al Jazeera, hospitals in Port-de-Paix are being pushed to the limit. At the Immaculate Conception Hospital, for example, medical professionals do not have the supplies needed to treat those who were wounded in the earthquake, issues that a further compounded by electricity outages and the damage that the hospital itself sustained.
“There was no electricity here, so we couldn’t receive the huge numbers that came last night,” Paul Miclaude, a doctor working in the emergency room, said, according to AFP. “It was really difficult for us to send them to another hospital. With time running out, some died here.”
The aftershocks of the earthquake also make it virtually impossible for people to be inside of the hospital, which is putting up tents in order to treat the patients.
According to Al Jazeera this series of tremors were among the strongest to hit the country since the catastrophic 2010 earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people.