23197: (Chamberlain) Death toll nears 700 from Haiti flooding (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The death toll in Haiti
from flooding and mudslides triggered by Tropical Storm Jeanne rose above
660 on Tuesday and government officials were still struggling to reach
areas cut off by flood waters.
     The storm swept north of Haiti during the weekend, drenching the
impoverished Caribbean nation, inundating cities and sending deadly
mudslides through towns and villages.
     Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who declared three days of
national mourning for the victims, planned to visit some of the hardest hit
areas on Tuesday.
     The government put the death toll from the floods at 662 people and
expected the total to rise as relief workers recovered bodies and reached
areas isolated by the now receding water.
     The known toll included 550 deaths in the coastal city of Gonaives, 65
in Haiti's Northwest province and 47 in other towns.
     "There's not one house in Gonaives that has not been affected,"
Latortue said before leaving Port-au-Prince to tour the city. Officials
estimated half of the 200,000 residents needed immediate assistance with
shelter, water and food.
     The city is the birthplace of Haiti's independence from France 200
years ago and it was where an armed revolt began that led to the ouster of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide earlier this year.
     Latortue's entourage hoped to land on the island of La Tortue off
Haiti's north coast to assess damage there. U.N. workers said on Monday it
was barely visible beneath the flood waters and rescue workers have been
unable to reach it.
     U.N. peacekeeping forces sent to stabilize Haiti after Aristide's
departure were helping with rescue efforts and providing transportation for
relief shipments.
     Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, is frequently inundated by
flash floods and mudslides because of extensive deforestation. Around 2,000
Haitians died when extensive floods washed away villages near the
Dominican-Haitian border in May.
     Tropical Storm Jeanne also killed 11 people in the Dominican Republic,
which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and two in the U.S.
territory of Puerto Rico.
     The storm meandered in the Atlantic about 445 miles (700 km)
east-northeast of the Bahamas' Great Abaco Island on Tuesday but posed no
immediate threat to land, forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center
said.