LES CAYES, Haiti, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- In Les Cayes, Haiti, motorcycles are now the only vehicles able to quickly and efficiently traverse the often muddy or flooded roads leading to the remote communities in the south of the city, which recently become known since the powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the island.
The terrain and limited means of transport has rendered delivery of already scarce aid difficult.
Hector Mendez, a member of Mexico's famed Topos Azteca Rescuers Association, has been waiting for the arrival of funds that will allow him to travel with six other rescuers to Haiti.
His team, which includes 10 foreign nurses, aims to provide scarce medical supplies that could prevent the need for amputations among the thousands of Haitians injured in the quake.
Mendez said he was surprised that so far few of the quake-hit areas have received international support from groups like his, especially since dozens of global organizations and foundations are supposedly already in Haiti.
However, in downtown Les Cayes or neighboring communities, rescuers are hardly seen working through the rubble to find victims or recover bodies.
Instead, locals scavenge through the ruins for what building materials they can find to sell or use to reconstruct their own houses.
To meet the most urgent need of suffering Haitians, the Ayiti Community Trust, a local relief organization, is raising funds to help quake-hit families in remote, unaccessible areas with reconstruction.
Guerda Nicolas, a member of the organization, visited Lievre, a rural community that saw a lot of material damage, but fortunately few deaths.
Most residents in Lievre leave their homes at four in the morning to work in the fields and rarely return until the end of the day, he said.
Had the earthquake, which struck at 8:29 a.m. local time (1229 GMT), occurred at another time, the loss of life would have increased exponentially, he noted. Enditem
