Posted on 09/23/2004 4:09:15 AM PDT by foolscap
GONAIVES, Haiti - The death toll from floods in Haiti has risen to more than 1,070 and could reach 2,000, Dieufort Deslorges of the government’s civil protection agency said Wednesday.
Rescuers counted 1,013 bodies recovered from floodwaters, mud and collapsed homes in Gonaives alone by Wednesday night, he said of Haiti’s third-largest city.
Another 58 bodies have been recovered elsewhere in Haiti’s northwest province, Deslorges told The Associated Press.
He said the number of people reported missing since Tropical Storm Jeanne lashed the islands with torrential rains for 30 hours over the weekend was up to 1,250. Some bodies washed out to sea at Gonaives, dozens remained in still-high waters or floating in flooded houses in the city, he said, indicating that the toll could reach as high as 2,000.
In this impoverished Caribbean nation, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, that could be the highest toll ever in a country where disaster strikes frequently and hard.
U.N. peacekeepers fired into the air to keep a hungry crowd at bay Wednesday as aid workers handed out bread, the first food in days for some in this city devastated by floods...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Sounds like a quagmire.
Is the UN seeking a commission on any food or supplies sent to this country?
Sad to read about so much death. Odd to read that the peacekeepers in Haiti are armed and the ones that they had in Iraq were not.
There is no rule of law in Haiti. Years of anarchy have left the country destitute and desperate.
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