Jeanne storm rages across Haiti, killing 90
Tropical Storm Jeanne brought raging floodwaters to Haiti, killing at least 90 people and leaving dozens of Haitian families huddled on rooftops as the storm pushed further out into the open seas, officials said.
Floods tore through the north-western coastal town of Gonaives and surrounding areas, covering crops and turning roads into rivers.
US-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and his interior minister toured the area in a UN truck yesterday, but were not able to reach many areas because of washed out roads.
“We don’t know how many dead there are,” Latortue said. ”2004 has been a terrible year.”
Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas Internationalis said its workers picked up 62 bodies in pickup trucks and counted another 18 at a morgue in Gonaives alone, said Venel Suffrard, the Vatican-based organisation’s director in the town. Suffrard said he expected the toll to rise.
The floods killed another 10 people in other parts of the country, mostly in the north west, said Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesman for the Haitian Ministry of Interior.
The deaths came four months after floods killed more than 3,000 people on the Haitian-Dominican border. In February, a three-week rebellion ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and left about 300 dead.
Several people were reported missing and feared dead. Unlike the Dominican Republic, much of Haiti is deforested and unable to hold back floodwaters.
Residents said the floods caught the town by surprise Saturday night. Jean-Baptiste Agilus, a 46-year-old teacher, said he watched the deluge engulf houses in his neighbourhood, filling some with 13 feet of water.
Argentinean troops, part of a UN mission and responsible for patrolling Gonaives, treated at least 150 injuries, mostly bad cuts on feet and legs that required stitches, said Lt Cmdr Emilio Vera, a spokesman.
Latortue declared Gonaives a disaster area and called on the international community to provide immediate humanitarian aid. More than 3,000 UN peacekeeping troops are in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country with a population of 8 million.
