23234: (Chamberlain) Hundreds buried in Haiti as flood deaths top 1,000 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Haiti began burying
hundreds of flood victims in mass graves on Wednesday while emergency food
was distributed to some of the thousands of people made homeless by
Tropical Storm Jeanne.
     The death toll rose to 1,008 in the Artibonite region around the
northern coastal city of Gonaives and 72 in Haiti's Northwest province,
said Dr. Carl Murat Cantave, a government official.
     Another 1,000 people were missing and the final death count was likely
to hit 2,000, he said.
     Walls of water roared down from the Caribbean country's deforested
hills as the storm passed north of Haiti during the weekend, and left
Gonaives and Port-de-Paix, another northern city, under a dense crust of
mud.
     Government workers and U.N. peacekeepers were burying the dead in mass
graves to prevent the spread of disease.
     Truckloads of bodies in plastic bags were delivered for burial at the
Bois Marchand cemetery near Gonaives and police were called in to calm
neighbors who angrily protested the mass burials, Cantave said.
     The U.N.'s World Food Program said its first convoy of trucks carrying
40 metric tons of food arrived Tuesday night and aid agencies were
distributing rice, beans, cooking oil and loaves of fresh bread.
     "At this point we think at least 175,000 people are affected across
the country. Many of them were already very vulnerable and now, they have
lost their homes, their entire crops, their animals and the few belongings
they had," said the WFP country director, Guy Gauvreau.
     "It is a huge disaster. The water has just washed away everything," he
said.
     Police tried to keep order as desperately hungry people swarmed the
food distribution sites. One policeman was hit by a rock and injured while
trying to hold back the crowd.
     The WFP has long provided food for 500,000 people in the poorest
country of the Americas, and increased operations after a violent revolt
forced ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee into exile on Feb. 29.
     Devastating floods and mudslides in May, in which about 2,000 people
died, further aggravated the humanitarian disaster facing the county. Haiti
is chronically vulnerable to flooding because of widespread deforestation
caused by Haitians digging up roots to make charcoal for cooking.
     U.N. forces maintaining the peace after Aristide's departure were
helping with rescue and relief efforts.
     The international Red Cross, meanwhile, launched a worldwide appeal
for $3.3 million to help the flood victims.
     Haitian-American hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean joined aid workers. "I
came here to see my people, to see their desperation and to assess the
situation and see how we can help," Jean told Reuters. "I want to be able
to tell the world about the disaster I witnessed here."
     He said he was trying to organize a "peace concert" for Haiti later
this year featuring top international stars.
     Jeanne also killed 11 people in the Dominican Republic, which shares
the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and two in the U.S. Caribbean
territory of Puerto Rico.
     By 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Wednesday, Jeanne was 500 miles (800 km)
east of Great Abaco island in the northeastern Bahamas and moving slowly
west-southwest.
     Packing winds of 100 mph (160 kph), the storm was expected to swing to
the west eventually and may threaten the east coast of the United States
next week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Florida has already
been battered by three big hurricanes this season.
     Two other storms continued to swirl through the Atlantic. Hurricane
Karl was about 1,400 miles (2,240 km) west-southwest of the Azores and
unlikely to threaten land.
     Tropical Storm Lisa was also far from land, at about 1,205 miles
(1,930 km) west of the Cape Verde islands.