St. John's surgeon and team eyeing return to Haiti following Hurricane Matthew

With the death toll of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti now nearing 500, a group of volunteers from Newfoundland and Labrador is making plans to help.

Team Broken Earth, a national organization led by St. John's doctor Andrew Furey, is awaiting word from their partners in Haiti on what they need before jumping into action.

• Hurricane Matthew's death toll reported to be 478 in Haiti, 61,500 people displaced

"As soon as we get a better handle on what their actual needs are, we're looking at putting a team together rather quickly," Furey told the St. John's Morning Show from Nicaragua. "And it will likely be led out of St. John's."

Furey, an orthopedic trauma surgeon, has close ties with Haiti. He made several trips to the island nation following its devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake in 2010, which killed more than 100,000 people.

Furey has continued to visit since, often using his vacation time to make volunteer trips.

His team has been in constant communication with hospitals in Haiti since before the hurricane hit on Tuesday.

"You develop strong personal relationships over the years, and the safety of those people was the first thing that sprung to mind," he said.

Two natural disasters like this, back-to-back, is just unprecedented.- Dr. Andrew Furey

If there has been one silver lining, it's that Port au Prince, the country's most populous city, was not hit as hard as expected.

The damage in rural regions, however, will be hard to pinpoint for a while.

"It's really difficult to know the exact aftermath of this right now," Furey said. "The communication lines are down and you can't travel to one of the places that was hit the hardest because a bridge has been washed out."

Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, was still struggling to get past the earthquake that left more than a million people homeless.

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"They've never fully recovered from the earthquake in 2010," Furey said. "This is going to not only strain their infrastructure, it's going to strain their healthcare system, strain their personnel, take a lot of money to rebuild things like bridges and roads. Two natural disasters like this, back-to-back, is just unprecedented."

Broken Earth had already planned to send a team from Halifax to Haiti at the end of October. Plans are now in the works to add more help.