Posted on 09/27/2004 5:40:37 PM PDT by Libloather
Haiti Flood Deaths Climb; Food Supplies Tight
6 minutes ago
By Joseph Guyler Delva
GONAIVES, Haiti (Reuters) - More than a week after devastating floods hit northern Haiti the death count rose sharply as reports came in from remote areas on Monday and aid workers struggled to feed thousands of desperate people.
The estimated toll from the floods triggered by Tropical Storm Jeanne climbed to about 2,400 after a parish priest reported "a total disaster" in small towns in Poteau, a region outside Gonaives.
In Gonaives, young men grabbed food from an aid convoy and others robbed women for bags of rice. Aid workers, backed by armed U.N. peacekeeping forces, increased the number of distribution points for emergency supplies to four but still faced tense crowds of destitute people clamoring for help.
Angry men complained about a policy of handing out food only to women, who traditionally care for the feeding of their households, and many women despaired of getting clean water for drinking and cooking, resorting to muddy wells.
"We don't know if the water is good, but we have to use it. If we don't cook anything my children are going to die," said Jacqueline Orassin, a 49-year-old with six children.
Torrential rain from Tropical Storm Jeanne engulfed much of the port city of 200,000 people last week. Government estimates had put the death toll at 1,650, with about 800 missing.
But Toussaint Chery, who as parish priest is Poteau's top authority, said about 1,000 people had died in 18 rural communities in his region. At least 750 of those deaths had not been previously reported, taking the nationwide toll from Jeanne to about 2,400.
TOTAL DISASTER
"I personally went to several of those communities. It's a total disaster," Chery said. "There are places that have been completely washed out."
Carl Murat Cantave, a government official in Gonaives, also said the official toll would rise. "Given the number of missing, when we declare the final death toll in the coming days, it will be at least 2,337 just for the Gonaives region," he said.
Relief agencies were working to set up more food distribution centers as soon as they could establish secure sites, said Rick Perera, a spokesman for relief agency CARE.
At one distribution center on Monday, several men said the policy of hand-outs to women was unfair and were determined to get supplies themselves.
At least four women said they were robbed after waiting for hours for food. Martha Casseus, 16, wept as she described how two men took a bag of rice and two jugs of cooking oil.
"I waited all that time and now I am going home empty-handed. I don't know what I am going to eat," she said. "My mother is sick. She has not eaten for days. What am I going to tell my mother?"
Outside Gonaives, a group of young men attacked a convoy of trucks taking supplies to Poteau, swarming onto a food truck guarded by U.N. troops. They fled with jugs of oil and bags of rice when the convoy stopped and troops moved in. (Additional reporting by Frances Kerry in Miami)
I have heard that the people long ago cut down all the trees on the island, therefore creating huge erosion problems and mud slides that kill large numbers..
I assume the FRENCH have sent a large contingent of Aid workers?
'Let them go naked' --Mama T
'In a humanatarian effort, a C-130 is being flown in filled with ketchup and pickles courtesy of John Kerry'
I don't know where he got his numbers from, but talkshow host Hugh Hewitt was quoting 6,000 dead on his show today.
So whatever happened to that whole Turtle Island that supposedly dissapeared? Did they ever find it?
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