LONDON-Search and Rescue teams from the UK are among the first to travel to the devastated town of Leogane to continue their search for survivors of the Haiti earthquake.
The teams were scheduled to leave Port-au-Prince at 9 a.m. local time (2 p.m. GMT) on Sunday and will be the first to reach Leogane where they will work alongside teams from Qatar and Iceland, according to the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID). They have been searching for survivors among the collapsed buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince since Thursday.
Leogane is close to the epicentre of the 7 magnitude earthquake that struck the island on January 12, and 60 km from Port-au-Prince. Around 80 to 90 per cent of the buildings are reported to be damaged according to a UN, EU, and World Food Programme joint assessment.
The 64-member search and rescue team is made up of fire-fighters from across the UK and includes two specially trained search dogs, Echo and Holly.
On Saturday the team rescued a 55-year-old man from the ruins of a supermarket and 39-year-old woman from a collapsed block of flats in Port-au-Prince.
On Friday, the first full day of the team’s deployment in Haiti, a 2-year-old girl was rescued from the rubble of a kindergarten after a gruelling five-hour mission, said Mike Thomas, commander of the UK search and rescue team on the DFID website.
The UK government also announced on Saturday that it will be donating £2.3 million of its $10 million (£6.2 million) aid pledge to logistical support and disease prevention.
Of that, £2 million is to fund vehicles and telecommunications networks to help aid workers get vital food, water and medical supplies distributed, said the DFID.
The £300,000 is to fund disease prevention programmes to help prevent outbreaks of diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea.
The teams were scheduled to leave Port-au-Prince at 9 a.m. local time (2 p.m. GMT) on Sunday and will be the first to reach Leogane where they will work alongside teams from Qatar and Iceland, according to the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID). They have been searching for survivors among the collapsed buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince since Thursday.
Leogane is close to the epicentre of the 7 magnitude earthquake that struck the island on January 12, and 60 km from Port-au-Prince. Around 80 to 90 per cent of the buildings are reported to be damaged according to a UN, EU, and World Food Programme joint assessment.
The 64-member search and rescue team is made up of fire-fighters from across the UK and includes two specially trained search dogs, Echo and Holly.
On Saturday the team rescued a 55-year-old man from the ruins of a supermarket and 39-year-old woman from a collapsed block of flats in Port-au-Prince.
On Friday, the first full day of the team’s deployment in Haiti, a 2-year-old girl was rescued from the rubble of a kindergarten after a gruelling five-hour mission, said Mike Thomas, commander of the UK search and rescue team on the DFID website.
The UK government also announced on Saturday that it will be donating £2.3 million of its $10 million (£6.2 million) aid pledge to logistical support and disease prevention.
Of that, £2 million is to fund vehicles and telecommunications networks to help aid workers get vital food, water and medical supplies distributed, said the DFID.
The £300,000 is to fund disease prevention programmes to help prevent outbreaks of diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea.
