Local aid groups, Haitians preparing to help earthquake-and storm-battered country

Drone video shows an old church and rows of homes in the Haitian City of Cavaillon shaken to ruins by the powerful 7.2 magnitude quake, which caused buildings, hotels and even hospitals full of people to collapse for miles.

There are countless people missing and presumed buried under heavy concrete rubble. A girl was seen on video being pulled out by people scrambling to find anyone still alive.

“They’re really scared, they’re shocked, they’re traumatized,” said Juju Maitre, who was born and raised in Haiti, and moved to Seattle six years ago to start a catering business. “I am traumatized, and I wasn’t there.”

Maitre’s family sent her photos Saturday showing the devastation where she used to live, including the home she’d bought for her mother.

“The houses have all gone,” she said. “There’s nowhere to sleep, there’s no food no medical. I actually have a family member who is a kid, he’s really injured.”

A nurse in Juju’s family told her there were no medics and no place to take him for treatment.

“She tried to help him, but he was bleeding a lot, there’s really no hospital right now. But he’s still really in really bad condition.”

A building with doctors and interns reportedly collapsed in the town of Jeremie, trapping the people needed the most.

“We didn’t have the chance to deploy our team yet,” said Marcelo Viscarra, with Federal-Way based World Vision, who is in Port au Prince Haiti--about 80 miles from where people are desperate for help. But he told KIRO-7 roads are impassible—by people with guns.

“Some areas that—where we should be crossing to get to those cities are under gang control,” he said, adding crews will be airlifted in to the area on Sunday.

“We really need people’s prayers; we really need people’s support in any every possible way you can imagine,” he said.

Maitre vowed to help, as well. “I love my country, I love my people and I want better for them. I stand for them and I will do whatever is in my power, I will use my platform in any way that I can to help them.”

Donate here to Medical Teams International to help Haiti.

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