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The death toll from a devastating earthquake in Haiti rose to 724 on Sunday with more than 2,800 people injured, as rescue workers scrambled to find survivors buried under buildings one day after the 7.2 magnitude quake shook the nation.

That quake struck the nation at around 8.30am Saturday, CNN reports, and caused tremors running from the east to west. 

Aftershocks were felt throughout the day and into the night, six of which registered stronger than a 5.0 magnitude.

As a result, hundreds of homes and buildings were flattened in the country,  which is still clawing its way back from another major tremor, 11 years ago and reeling from the assassination of its president Jovenel Moise just last month.

Southwestern Haiti bore the brunt of the blow, especially in the region in and around the city of Les Cayes.  The area is less-densely populated than other parts of the country, the New York Times reports.

But in a news conference on Sunday, Haitian officials said the toll from the disaster had climbed to 724 with at least 2,800 people injured as rescue workers struggled to find survivors before a tropical storm bares down on the island nation.

That was more than double the 304 reported killed during the last update, on Saturday.  

Multiple houses across the island nation, including this one in Les Cayes, were destroyed in Saturday's quake

A group of survivors tried to clear the wreckage made by the 7.2 magnitude quake

Some tried to look for survivors at a house in Les Cayes, but rescuers are said to be struggling to find anyone who is still alive 

As of Sunday, the death toll from the earthquake reached 724 people. It more than doubled from the previous update of 304 fatalities shared by officials on Saturday 

In a news conference Sunday morning, Prime Minister Ariel Henry said: 'The most important this is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble.'

He added: 'We have learned that the local hospitals, in particular that of Les Cayes, are overwhelmed with wounded, fractured people.'

Officials in the city estimate that there are only about 30 doctors for one million residents, according to the New York Times.

Henry said officials have started 'to send medications and medical personnel to the facilities that are affected,' and 'for the people who need urgent special care, we have evacuated a certain number of them and we will evacuate some more today and tomorrow.' 

And to help, former Senator Herve Foucand was using his small propeller plane to ferry people to Haiti's capital, which was not as severely damages as Les Cayes.

'I have 30 people in serious condition waiting for me,' Foucand told the Times, 'but I only have seven seats.' 

A firefighter crawled through a hole in the debris to search for survivors in a damaged building

Firefighters risked their lives Sunday to continue to search through rubble

A mother carried her child as she walked through the remains of her home in Les Cayes 

Churches, hotels, hospitals and schools were badly damaged or destroyed, while the walls of a prison were torn open by the violent shudders that convulsed Haiti. 

It destroyed 2,868 homes and damaged another 5,410, according to Haiti's civil protection agency, CNN reports. 

Meanwhile, the main supermarket and smaller food and supply markets in Les Cayes collapsed, leaving about half a million people with dwindling supplies, and worrying that some may start looting over basic needs like water, according to the Times.

The quake snapped the town's underground pipes, causing flooding, triggering some landslides and blocking the main road into Jeremie, complicating relief efforts there.

On Sunday morning, the Associated Press reports, people in the town tried to line up to buy what little was available, including bananas, avocados and water.

Some Haitians said they spent Saturday night sleeping in the open, traumatized by memories of the magnitude 7 quake in 2010 that struck far closer to the sprawling capital, Port-au-Prince, and killed tens of thousands of people.

Footage of Saturday's aftermath posted on social media showed residents reaching into narrow openings in piles of fallen masonry to pull shocked and distraught people from the debris of walls and roofs that had crumbled around them.

Access to the worst-hit areas was complicated by a deterioration in law and order that has left key access roads in parts of Haiti in the hands of gangs, although unconfirmed reports on social media suggested they would let aid pass. 

Les Cayes locals sat around the debris Sunday morning to eat breakfast

Some spent the night outside out of fear their roofs could collapse on them

Thousands of buildings were destroyed in the earthquake

For some, the wreckage of Saturday's earthquake harkened images of a January 2010 earthquake that left hundreds of thousands of people dead.

'The neighbors, I saw them running and running,' Lydie Jean-Baptiste said of the earthquake over the weekend. 'I said "What's wrong?" They said "Earthquake!" and I rushed to the front door.'

'All of a sudden , I had all of those images of January 12 coming to my mind and I felt really, really scared.' 

Estimates of the death toll from that hurricane vary from below 100,000 to as high as the government's 316,000. 

'People had their heads cut off, corpses, everything,' she said. 'For 48 hours, I just felt like "Am I alive? Did I awaken somewhere else?"

Iconic buildings in the nation were destroyed by that earthquake, including the Notre Dame l'Assomption Cathedral, and tens of thousands of Haitians are still living in provisional housing as a result of the quake.

Efforts to rebuild have been hampered by a flawed international aid system, corruption and political turmoil. 

Jean-Baptiste said it took her nearly a year before she felt comfortable sleeping under her own roof, without fearing that it would collapse on her, but now, she said, 'the trauma is coming back.'

Some have said they would feel more comfortable sleeping outside in the aftermath of Saturday's quake. 

Meanwhile, the country is facing a tropical storm that is expected to hit the area on Monday

As of Sunday, the entire coast of Haiti was under a tropical storm watch 

The earthquake came at a time of political turmoil for the island nation, just one month after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7.

'We're concerned that this earthquake is just one more crisis on top of what the country is already facing - including the worsening political stalemate after the president's assassination, COVID and food insecurity, Jean-Wickens Merone, a spokesman for World Vision Haiti said in a statement to CNN. 

The rescue efforts are set to be made more complicated by the arrival of Tropical Storm Grace, which is set to lash Haiti with heavy rainfall on Monday. There was also the possibility of flash flooding, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

As of Sunday, the entire coast of Haiti was under a tropical storm watch. 

At the Vatican, Pope Francis urged nations to send quick aid.  

'May solidarity from everyone lighten the consequences of the tragedy,' he told pilgrims and tourists at his Sunday blessing in St. Peter's Square.

The United States sent vital supplies and deployed a 65-person urban search-and-rescue team with specialized equipment, said Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.

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