Bath Rescuer working to make Haiti earthquake town safe

Rob and his team spent 10 days in Haiti to assess whether buildings were safe to use

A British charity worker has described the 'sporadic collapse' of essential buildings following a devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Rob Davis, 50, from Bath, spent 10 days leading a group of structural engineers for Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters (Saraid) on the island.

The natural disaster struck Haiti on 14 August killing more than 2,000 people.

His team have been working on the south coast with local officials, helping to assess whether buildings are safe.

The group spent 10 days leading a group of structural engineers on the island

Speaking on Thursday, just before he and his team left the island Mr Davis said: "We are mainly trying to get central buildings like hospitals, schools and churches back up and running as soon as possible, working with local engineers to get the community back to some sort of normality.

"We've been working in Les Cayes, on the south coast.

"There has been a sporadic collapse of buildings, a lot of damage. Schools are very important because they're also hurricane shelters here in Haiti."

During the past 20 years Saraid has responded to disasters across the world, predominantly after earthquakes.

Mr Davis says there may still be people alive in the rubble.

Saraid have been working with local teams to assess the safety of buildings

"The window of survivability is difficult to predict, but we have seen miracle rescues around the world some 20 days after a disaster.

"The people are extremely resilient. Since 2010 it seems like they haven't had a break, with floods, cholera, hurricanes and now this tragic earthquake.

"It will take a long time to recover from. Disasters of this size and scale take a long time."

The Saraid team, which is in Haiti on request of the country's government, say it had to be completely self-sufficient during its relief mission.

Saraid has been working with local engineers to assess building safety

"We can't put any undue stress on the community, and so we provide all our own equipment, tents, satellite communication and medical supplies.

"We rely heavily on the British public donating things to us."

The team has just presented its findings at the national headquarters of the Haiti building industry, and has been running training workshops for local engineers on how to coordinate this type of event.

More than 2,000 people have died in the earthquake