Posted on 09/24/2004 3:41:57 AM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult
GONAIVES, Haiti -- Hungry, thirsty and increasingly desperate residents attacked each other in a panic to get scarce food and water Thursday as workers struggled to bury hundreds of corpses six days after the city was struck by Tropical Storm Jeanne.
More than 1,100 were killed and 1,250 are missing, and the toll was rising. The storm left 250,000 homeless in Haiti's northwest province, which includes the port of Gonaives.
Health workers feared an epidemic of disease in the country's third-largest city from the unburied dead, overflowing raw sewage, lack of potable water, and infections from injuries. Some people already were falling ill.
Police erected barbed wire around their station Thursday after shots were fired at the station overnight.
Most of the police also were left homeless by the floods and had only one vehicle, and that one wasn't working, officer Louis Francois said. Their helplessness enraged residents, who have started throwing rocks at the few riot police the government sent in to help.
"We were saved from the floods, but now my baby is sick," said Marilucie Fortune, 30, who gave birth to a son in a slum last weekend, as Jeanne pounded Haiti with torrential rain for 30 hours. Jeanne has since become a hurricane, churning toward the Bahamas with 105 mph winds and a track that forecasters say could lead to Florida this weekend.
Haiti's civil protection agency said more than 900 people have been treated for injuries, mostly cuts or gashes from debris. Medics from U.N. peacekeeping troops have pitched in.
The General Hospital -- still knee-deep in mud -- was out of commission, medical supplies are running out, and some aid trucks were unable to reach the city because part of the road was washed away.
Hundreds of people pushed through a wooden barrier to crowd into Gonaives' sole working clinic for treatment, where one doctor was on duty.
Workers dug new mass graves for bodies half-buried in the mud, trapped in collapsed homes or floating in floodwaters that still ran knee-deep in places.
"There are so many bodies, you smell them but you don't see them," said farmer Louise Roland, who like many held a lime to her nose to mask the stench.
Some residents of the seaside slum of Carenage had grown so desperate to get rid of the decaying corpses that they were burying the unidentified victims in their backyards. That could cause yet another health hazard since the bodies easily could be forced up from shallow seaside graves.
"We need surgical masks, water and food," said Frantz Bernier, who was burning tires to protest the lack of government help. "We don't have anything."
By Thursday, 1,105 bodies had been recovered -- the vast majority in Gonaives -- with 1,250 missing and nearly 1,000 injured, according to Dieufort Deslorges, spokesman for the government's civil protection agency.
"It's a critical situation in terms of epidemics, because of the bodies still in the streets, because people are drinking dirty water and scores are getting injuries from debris -- huge cuts that are getting infected," said Francoise Gruloos, Haiti director for the U.N. Children's Fund.
Martine Vice-Aimee, an 18-year-old mother of two whose home was destroyed, said people already were "getting sick from the water."
"They're walking in it, their skin is getting itchy and rashes. The water they're drinking is giving them stomach aches," she said.
Limited distribution by aid workers left most people still hungry and thirsty.
"We can only drink the water people died in," complained farmer Jean Lebrun.
Aid agencies have dry food stocked in Gonaives, but few have the means to cook. Food for the Poor, based in Deerfield, Fla., said its truckloads of relief were unable to reach the city Wednesday. Troops from the Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping forcing were ferrying in supplies by helicopter.
Peacekeepers fired into the air Wednesday to keep a crowd at bay as aid workers handed out loaves of bread -- the first food in days for some.
Police said they feared attack by about 20 prisoners who escaped from jail during the storm.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies appealed for $3.3 million to fund relief operations, and several nations were sending help.
The U.S. government will provide more than $2 million in immediate disaster relief to Haiti's flood victims in the coming days, USAID spokesman Jose Fuentes said.
Haiti was especially susceptible to Jeanne's rain-laden system, because more than 98 percent of the land is deforested and torrents of water and mudslides smashed down denuded hills and into the city. Floodwater lines on buildings went up to 10 feet high.
The disaster follows devastating floods in May, along the Haiti-Dominican Republic border, which left 1,191 dead and 1,484 missing in Haiti and 395 dead and 274 missing on the Dominican side. The countries share the island of Hispaniola.
Haiti: Workers hastily digging mass graves
dittos: shun Red Cross, especially (but not only) IRC. They only do a good job with prisoner issues, and even there they've strayed toward becoming politically correct.
Catholic Charities is MUCH better at these sorts of operations if you wish to get aid to the needy.
.
Because high winds simply aren't very deadly at all. Look at the 15 killed in Andrew.
WATER is what kills. Grenada didn't have massive flash floods and mudslides going down denuded mountains. Their damage was mostly from wind, not flooding.
Prayers for the Haitians.
jI think the people in Rwanda and Sudan would disagree with that.
What are the FRENCH doing tohelp Haiti?
Probably blaming the hurricane on Bush.
Actually it's because Grenada didn't suffer anywhere on par with what's going on in Haiti. Haiti is pretty much deforested. The water has no place to go except the lowest point and pronto. A lot of the region hit is still underwater 5 days after the rains.
Based on what? Like I said, Catholic Charities isn't even Catholic. And the Salvationists take their charitable responsibilities very seriously.
"The leader of Haiti’s U.S.-backed government, interim President Boniface Alexandre, appealed this week for urgent aid, and numerous countries responded. On Thursday, the U.S. government said it would provide more than $2 million — an increase from $60,000 that some criticized for its paucity."
I thought $60,000 was the legal amount the government could spend until Congress approved more money? Come on, how much lower can biased news outlets like MSNBC.COM go? Does someone know how to complain and who to address a complaint?
Based on rankings provided by Charity watchdogs who rate efficiency, fundraising percentages, money actually provided to aid, and other factors.
I could question why you even brought some idea that CC isn't Catholic, or why you bothered to mention it, but I won't.
I will simply keep my thoughts to myself.
Will the United Nations send in help just as they have with the killing in Africa? It's ashamed that Jamaica doesn't have oil, they could make a deal for food.
My bad....Jamaica = Haiti. Maybe I could trade oil for brains this afternoon.
Compare July 2001 with September 2004
http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/ivan/photos/index.html
When you think it can't get any worse in Haiti....
I agree about Catholic Charities. That's where our donation is going. God help those poor people.
No kidding? So you believe that CC is somehow more efficient than the Salvationists? You really need to explain yourself.
I could question why you even brought some idea that CC isn't Catholic
Don't believe ME. Call them up and ask them, yourself. Most of the employees are not Catholic. Most of the beneficiaries are not. And Catholicism is not offered to anyone. They are a self-proclaimed secular, or inter-religious (whatever you prefer), 'service' organization.
They were originally founded as Catholic, like many universities and hospitals which no longer are. And they are still supported by the 'reform' parishes. And they do good work, make no mistake. But I don't know that they are known for being efficient, or for being anything but politically correct, rather than Catholic.
There are several Haitian families living in my gated community in Palm Beach County. They are extremely hard-working people and take great pride in their homes.
I taught a class that had a young guy from Haiti. He was serving time in federal prison.
He was taking classes to make him an electrician so that he could return home and install electricity in his village.
And the Democrats say we are poor?
Yep....I know Gonaive pretty well.
It's fairly grim for most of it's residents there on a good day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.