The death toll following the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Haiti has gone up to at least 1,297 people, according to the nation’s civil protection agency.
The quake was followed by a series of aftershocks, and Tropical Storm Grace is forecast to hit the crisis-prone nation on Monday.
Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a state of emergency, and pledged to ‘mobilize all the resources of my administration to help victims.’
The U.S. deployed search and rescue teams to help find survivors among the debris of collapsed buildings in Haiti as the death toll soars from Saturday’s massive earthquake.
The tremor took place on the same fault line that caused the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.