23205: (Chamberlain) Haiti flood death toll nears 700, likely to rise (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

                                Haiti flood death toll nears 700, likely to
rise


     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     GONAIVES, Haiti, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Survivors of devastating flooding
in Haiti wandered mud-clogged streets in search of food on Tuesday and
officials said the death toll could rise above 660.
     Tropical Storm Jeanne swept north of Haiti during the weekend,
drenching the impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million, inundating cities
and sending deadly mudslides through towns and villages.
     The government put the death toll at 662 and expected it to rise as
relief workers recovered bodies and reached areas isolated by the now
receding water.
     The known toll included 550 deaths in Gonaives, 65 in Haiti's
Northwest province and 47 in other towns.
     Elie Cantave, the top government official for the province of
Artibonite, Haiti's most fertile agricultural area, said the toll could
rise as around 400 people were missing in Gonaives and surrounding towns.
     Relief supplies were starting to reach the worst-hit areas, but the
pace was slowed by waterlogged roads and worries about security in a
country that is still unstable after an armed revolt ousted ex-President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February.
     In Gonaives, a coastal city of 200,000 where large areas were
inundated at the weekend, officials said 550 people died, many more were
missing and half the population needed immediate assistance with food,
water and shelter.
     "I lost five people (relatives) in the floods and I don't have
anything, no water, no food, nothing," said one stunned resident, Mercidieu
Pierre-Andre, 49.
     Water was still waist-high in places and mud on the windows of homes
illustrated a desperate tale of rising water which sent people clambering
on to their roofs to survive.
     Some people were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Cars were submerged and dead animals littered streets.
     The World Food Programme sent a convoy of 12 trucks with 40 tons of
food to Gonaives, up a road still waterlogged in parts, and hoped to start
handing it out by Wednesday after ensuring that distribution points would
be secure, said regional WFP spokesman Alejandro Chicheri.
     Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is chronically vulnerable
to flooding because widespread deforestation has stripped the topsoil from
its hills and mountains. Flooding in May killed about 2,000 people.
     U.N. forces maintaining the peace after Aristide's departure were
helping with rescue efforts and providing transportation for relief
shipments.
     Gonaives residents recounted clinging to trees to survive or seeing
their relatives die before their eyes.
     "The water started to grow high, but we never thought it was going to
get so high," said Josephine Mesadieu, 20. "Then it started to get up to
our necks, then I had to swim. My younger brother and sisters could not do
so, they died," she said.
     Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue visited Gonaives by helicopter
on Tuesday and was traveling later to other flooded areas, including the
northern city of Port-de-Paix and, if his group could land, La Tortue
island off the north coast.
     At the United Nations, interim President Boniface Alexandre appealed
for world aid at the opening of the annual General Assembly session in New
York.
     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.
     Jeanne, now a hurricane with 90 mph (150 kph) winds, meandered in the
Atlantic about 485 miles (785 km) east of the Bahamas' Great Abaco Island
on Tuesday. Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the
storm posed no immediate threat to land.