23180: (Chamberlain) Tropicam Storm Jeanne (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   GONAIVES, Sept 20 (AP) -- Raging floodwaters brought by Tropical Storm
Jeanne killed at least 90 people in Haiti and left families huddled on
rooftops as the storm pushed further out into the open seas, officials
said.
   Floods caught the residents of Gonaive by surprise, covering crops and
turning roads into rivers in the northwestern coastal town of Gonaives and
surrounding areas.
   Jean-Baptiste Agilus, a 46-year-old teacher, said he watched the deluge
engulf houses in his neighborhood Saturday night, filling some with 13 feet
of water. He said he saw his neighbor running from his house, while the
rising waters swept away the man's wife and two children, ages 12 and 15.
   "The water rushed into their home, all the homes in the neighborhood,"
he said. "It destroyed everything."
   Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas Internationalis said Sunday that
its workers picked up 62 bodies in pickup trucks and counted another 18 at
a morgue in Gonaives alone, said Rev. Venel Suffrard, the Vatican-based
organization'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 northwest, said Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesman for the
Haitian Ministry of Interior.
   U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and his interior
minister toured the area in a U.N. truck Sunday, 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."
   A World Health Organization worker said he had toured parts of downtown
Gonaives and saw people pushing wooden carts filled with cadavers. "There
is no life left in the center of town," U.N. health worker Pierre Adam
said.
   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.
   Unlike the Dominican Republic, much of Haiti is deforested and unable to
hold back floodwaters.
   Many families, though, remained on their flat concrete rooftops
surrounded by bundles of belongings, mostly clothing.
   Argentinean troops, part of a U.N. 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.
Many people had stepped on shards of glass or pieces of metal left
underwater by the force of the flood waters, he said.
   Authorities said they had not been able to reach the seaside shantytown
of Raboteau and other neighborhoods.
   Latortue declared Gonaives a disaster area and called on the
international community to provide immediate humanitarian aid. More than
3,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops are in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's
poorest country with a population of 8 million.
   The erratic storm lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Friday and
Saturday, drenching northern Hispaniola and triggering flash floods.
   The storm has been blamed for at least 100 deaths. Seven died in
neighboring Dominican Republic and a third death was reported in Puerto
Rico on Sunday.
   Much of Gonaives was still under waist-deep water Sunday and aid workers
were having trouble evacuating all the people in need, Deslorges said.
   Jeanne lost strength even as it drove thousands of Dominicans from their
homes late Friday. But a few hours after being downgraded to a tropical
depression, it strengthened again on Saturday into a tropical storm with
lashing winds.
   The storm stalled over the Dominican after coming ashore Thursday as a
hurricane, with winds near 80 mph. It had raged through Puerto Rico on
Wednesday, dumping up to 2 feet of rain, and flooding hundreds of homes.
   Jeanne headed into open seas Sunday and didn't appear likely to hit the
storm-battered southeastern United States. At 5 a.m., Jeanne was 325 miles
east of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, moving northward near 8 mph.
Storm-force winds strengthened to 60 mph and stretched up to 105 miles from
its center.
   Meanwhile, Hurricane Karl posed no immediate threat to land, forecasters
said. Its sustained winds strengthened to Category 4 force near 135 mph and
were expected to get even stronger Sunday, according to the National
Hurricane Center.
   ------
   On the Net:
   http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
   http://www.wunderground.com/tropical