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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:23
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Haiti: 
quote:
Haiti flood death toll nears 600
Most of Gonaives is submerged
At least 556 people died after floodwaters raged through Haiti in the wake of tropical storm Jeanne, a UN spokesman says.
Aid agencies counted some 500 bodies in the northern coastal city of Gonaives, the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission, Touissant Kong-Doudou, said.
Another 56 people died in the nearby town of Port-de-Paix, officials said.
There is particular concern about the island of La Tortue, which is said to be barely visible under the water.
I lost my kids and there's nothing I can do
Haiti resident
Storm: Your experiences
Peacekeepers from the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (Minustah) warned that the death toll could would rise further.
"The water is high. As it goes down, we expect to find more bodies," Mr Kongo-Doudou said.
The storm earlier reportedly killed 11 people in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, and has since moved north into the Atlantic.
Despair
Two days of steady rain sent torrents down the mountains of northern Haiti, causing a river to burst its banks, officials said.
Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue called for international help, describing the flooded area as "a vast sea".
Mr Latortue said 80,000 people were without food and water in Gonaives, the biggest city in the area.
People were left huddled on rooftops, while roads around the city were transformed into rivers.
Many others were reported missing and injured in the country, prone to floods due to massive deforestation. Hospital workers there say medical supplies are also urgently needed.
"I lost my kids and there's nothing I can do," Jesner Estimable, whose daughter was killed and another of his five children was missing, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"All I have is complete despair and the clothes I'm wearing," Mr Estimable said.
Some local residents said they were completely unprepared for the deluge which filled some houses with 4m (13ft) of water.
Emergency aid
UN peacekeepers are helping the relief effort, as are international aid agencies.
The UN World Food Programme said its first convoy of 12 trucks carrying emergency food aid was heading towards the city of Gonaives.
"This area is really poor and people are already suffering from the impact of political unrest and natural disasters - it is really not what this country needed," Anne Poulsen told BBC News Online from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
Waters have begun to subside, allowing road access to Gonaives, but half of the area remains underwater, she said.
"People are in dire need of help - they need food, medical attention and rehousing," she said.
Floods can be particularly devastating in Haiti because it is almost entirely deforested.
In May, a storm killed about 3,000 people on the country's border with the Dominican Republic.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3674990.stm
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18-09-2004 13:31
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