Mexico City, Mexico — A first shipment of aid has been sent to Haiti, announced Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reported. A plane load of medicine, equipment and supplies made their way to the Caribbean country Sunday.
The shipment was sent to help after the country was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday leaving at least 1,297 dead.
While Marcelo Ebrard posted Mexico’s support of Haiti with aid, he did not detail the amount that would be sent.
On Saturday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that he had ordered the preparation of immediate aid through the National Coordination of Civil Protection and the Secretariats of Foreign Relations, the Navy and National Defense.
Many Haitians spent Saturday night sleeping outdoors, traumatized by memories of the 2010 magnitude 7 earthquake, which struck much closer to the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Rescue operations for the country were complicated by the arrival of Tropical Storm Grace Monday with heavy rainfall.
Chandler of the Civil Protection Agency said thousands of people sleeping on the streets would be exposed to torrential rains amid an increasing risk of water-borne diseases.
