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This is VOA News. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton.
Days after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, heavy rain brought rescue operations to a brief halt and slowed aid agency's response.
Haiti's Civil Protection Agency raised the death toll on Tuesday to nearly 2,000, with an estimated nearly 10,000 injured.
Officials say the 7.2 magnitude earthquake damaged or destroyed about 12,000 homes, along with hospitals, schools and churches. Officials said more than 30,000 families are without shelter.
Through Tuesday, Tropical Storm Grace was forecast to drop as much as 38 centimeters of rain on southern Haiti, bringing flooding and the threat of landslides.
Bruno Maes, the UNICEF representative in Haiti, told Reuters "Countless Haitian families who have lost everything due to the earthquake are now living literally with their feet in the water due to (the) flooding."
Search and rescue efforts were suspended during the storm. They resumed on Tuesday performed mostly by residents and volunteers, who were often poorly equipped.
A Canadian volunteer told AP "All we have are sledgehammers and hands. That's the plan." The volunteer, Randy Lauder, is director of the Adoration Christian School in Haiti.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has people on the ground, and the U.S. Southern Command said it was sending eight helicopters from Honduras and seven U.S. Coast Guard cutters to support the USAID team.
America's NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan amid the U.S. military withdrawal from the country in the collapse of the Afghan government. Many European officials have voiced fears that the Taliban takeover will increase the risk of terrorism and renew an influx of refugees into Europe.
This is VOA News.
