Posted on 09/20/2004 7:50:50 PM PDT by RedBloodedAmerican
GONAIVES, Haiti - The death toll from a tropical storm that devastated parts of Haiti rose to 573 late Monday as search crews recovered dozens of bodies carried away by raging weekend floods or buried by mud or the ruins of their homes, officials said.
The bodies of at least 500 people killed by Tropical Storm Jeanne were filling morgues in Gonaives, according to Touissaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman for the U.N. mission. Fifty-six were in northern Port-de-Paix, and 17 more were located elsewhere on the Caribbean island.
“The water is high. As it goes down, we expect to find more bodies,” Kongo-Doudou said.
Two days after lashing Haiti, Jeanne regained hurricane strength over the open Atlantic on Monday but posed no immediate threat to land. Since it developed last week, Jeanne has been blamed for numerous deaths, including seven each in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
“I lost my kids, and there’s nothing I can do,” said Jean Estimable, whose 2-year-old daughter was killed and another of his five children was missing and presumed dead. “All I have is complete despair and the clothes I’m wearing,” he said, pointing to a floral dress and ripped pants borrowed from a neighbor.
Many of the bodies stacked in Gonaives’ flood-damaged General Hospital were children.
Gonaives in ‘catastrophic’ condition
In Gonaives, a city of about a quarter million, people waded through ankle-deep mud outside the mayor’s office, where workers were shoveling out mud and doctors treated the wounded.
Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesman for Haiti’s civil protection agency, told The Associated Press that the town’s situation was “catastrophic.” He said survivors “need everything from potable water to food, clothing, medication and disinfectants.”
A school bus lay smashed against a utility pole and waterlines up to 10-feet high showed the passage of the storm waters, which turned some roads into fast-flowing rivers. Floodwaters destroyed homes and crops in the Artibonite region that is Haiti’s breadbasket.
Katya Silme, 18, said she, her mother and six siblings spent the night in a tree because their house was flooded.
Neighbors swept away
“The river destroyed my house completely, and now we have nothing. We have not eaten anything since the floods,” she said.
Silme said she saw neighbors swept away in the waters Saturday. As she spoke, two dead children lay on a nearby porch, their faces covered with cloths.
Ronald Jean-Marie, 38, said the waters tore down the concrete walls of his home in Raboteau slum and that his neighbors, a woman and her two young children, disappeared in the fast-moving current.
The storm came four months after devastating floods along the southern border of Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic. Some 1,700 bodies were recovered, and 1,600 more were missing and presumed dead.
Deforestation yields bitter fruit
Floods are particularly devastating in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, because it is almost completely deforested, leaving few roots to hold back rushing waters or mudslides.
Gonaives also suffered fighting during the February rebellion that led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and left an estimated 300 dead.
Argentine troops who are among more than 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti treated at least 150 people injured by the floods in Gonaives, mostly for cuts on feet and legs, said Lt. Cmdr. Emilio Vera.
One man stood outside the flooded base used by the troops and asked soldiers to remove 11 bodies that were floating in his house, including four brothers and a sister.
“I would like to see if the soldiers could do something about these bodies,” said Jean-Saint Manus, a 30-year-old student. “The door was closed. Everybody was trapped inside.”
Equipment including the X-ray machine was covered with mud at Gonaives’ General Hospital, said Dr. Pierre-Marie Dieudonne, a doctor with the Catholic agency Caritas. He said there was a great need for antibiotics, food and water.
Three trucks carrying Red Cross relief supplies from tents to blankets rolled in Monday, but two were mobbed by people who grabbed blankets and towels. U.N. troops stood by watching. Only one truck arrived intact with tents at the mayor’s office.
People tripped over each other to grab tiny bags of water thrown from a Red Cross truck in front of City Hall.
Anger at the U.N.
“Everyone is desperate,” said Pelissier Heber of the Artibonite Chamber of Commerce. “The international community is not doing anything so there’s a general panic. The population is really mad because they were expecting more from the United Nations.”
Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue toured some flooded areas Sunday and declared Gonaives a disaster area, calling for international aid. The U.S. Embassy announced $60,000 in immediate relief.
At 5 p.m. EDT, Jeanne was centered about 370 miles east-northeast of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, with winds near 85 mph, moving northeast at about 7 mph.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Karl and Tropical Storm Lisa remained far out in the Atlantic and were not immediate threats to land. Karl’s sustained winds diminished to 120 mph, making it a Category 3 hurricane. Lisa had winds of 60 mph.
That is a really bad situation in Haiti. Dominican Republic had severe flooding in May which killed 300 people after 10 inches fell in one day.
NO word yet on that island that just vanished?
Anyone interested in sending aid or relief/supplies to Haiti, you can do so here
http://missionaryflights.org/about.htm
I know these folks and can vouch for them; they are very honest and will personally deliver to Haiti anything you send.
Like...... Sand? Bedrock?
I am not up on that. Which Island?
Or trees! They need roots!
LOL! What the hell are you talking about?!
It's been a very nasty hurricane season.
Sometimes, it's sunny and pleasant. Sometimes it rains a little. Sometimes a very bad storm comes along. Sometimes there's a bunch of really bad storms in a row. Then it gets sunny again.
This is commonly known as "weather".
Actually even before these storms, a majority of these people live in "lean-to's". A family would erect a hut out of plywood or corrugated steel - anything they could find. And between them and another hut, someone would toss a roof between the two and live there. It is pretty pitiful. France had a big part in draining their economy and also with supporting dictators in power years ago. Many of these folks still make all their foods outside in clay ovens which gets infested with insects, etc. Pretty bad situation.
More trouble for Kerry!! Of the 570 Haitians killed, 461 were scheduled to travel to Florida and cast 3,458 votes for Kerry and the dems. Each vote was worth $100 in cash (petty cash money from foreign supporters) plus transportation over and back. None of those who died was scheduled to speak with the international observers and claim they were disenfranchised. Only charming Jamaicans are scheduled for that task. And, yes, they do get extra for speaking to the observers and to the left wing media. This is a tragedy for Kerry.
Worldwide?
What a joke.
And in that link you are talking about UN HELO PILOTS who can't find an island they probably never tried to find before. The UN isn't doing SQUAT for Haiti.
"Age of global whatever....
If you recall, or maybe you don't recall, there have been other years where multiple large hurricanes hit the US. And it wasn't then, isn't now, the "age".
I wouldn't doubt it.
Imagine how the people in Rwanda and Uganda feel.(the ones that still can)
The UN is a bunch of do nothing bureaucrats. If the US does not lead, it does not get done.
Did GOP environmental policies usher in this new age of "global superstorms?"
No. This is just another piece of the puzzle that is being completed by someone else.
I have been to Haiti several times (Mountrouis, which is a town a ways south of Gonaives). I was told that the Duvaliers sold the trees to the Japanese, but I have not been able to verify this. Can you tell me about the "French connection"?
When I first learned (I am not a Haitian :o) ) this was when I would fly down to Port A Prince, and we would fly over the beaches and I remarked on the silt outlining the shore. I was told it was the earth washing into the sea - which it is - and when I asked "why?", that's when it was explained to me that the French came in and cleared the land. Now this was 1983-1984. My memory could be faulty on this, but I think I am recalling this correctly. And I am almost certain it was mahogany trees; it seems to me that the surprise of those being the trees uprooted is what made the info stick in my noggin. I will ask again the guys who I flew with just to make certain, if you think I ought to.
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