Flooded Again, Haiti Counts More Than 600 Dead

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, September 21, 2004 (ENS) - At least 600 people are dead as floodwaters swept across northern Haiti after Tropical Storm Jeanne poured torrential rains down on the island last weekend. On other Caribbean islands at least 18 people lost their lives.

Now classed as a hurricane, early this morning Jeanne was located 715 kilometers (444 miles) east-northeast of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas. Moving slowly and carrying winds of 90 miles per hour, Jeanne is not expected to touch land anytime soon.

Battered Haiti is attmpting to pick up the pieces. Five hundred bodies have been recovered in the city of Gonaïves, which is entirely under water, according to the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, peacekeepers who were deployed immediately following the disaster. The other fatalities are scattered across northern Haiti.

There are 380 people reported to be injured by the heavy rains, landslides and flooding.

The northern part of the country was described by Primer Minister Gerard Latortue as a "vast sea" when he visited the area on Sunday to survey the damage with other Haitian and UN officials.

All homes in Gonaives are flooded, Latortue said, and some 80,000 people, 80 percent of the population there, are in need of food.

Flooded Haiti (Photo courtesy WFP)

Food distribution centers with security are needed and so is support for the local health care capacity to care for the injured. People need help in the identification of corpses and the conduct of funerals.

The Civilian Police reports that the security situation is under control, but reportedly there are no police officers on duty in Gonaives as they evacuated from their posts during the storm on Saturday night.

The Argentinean military contingent camp is destroyed and 40 Brazilian soldiers have been sent to reinforce the Argentinean contingent as it continues its efforts to rehabilitate its base.

Roads to Gonaives are flooded and the region is isolated. A delegation from the Haitian Ministry of Public Works with technical experts and equipment was dispatched on Sunday to assess the situation and improve access.

ACT members in Haiti - Christian Aid, Diakonie Emergency Aid, Fédération Protestante d'Haiti, Lutheran World Federation and Service Chrétien d'Haiti are assessing the situation. They report that the Diakonie Emergency Aid office in Gonaïves was destroyed by the floods and that the access to the affected area is only possible by air as everything is under water.

The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) sent a team of a water and sanitation engineer and a doctor, to Saint Marc on Sunday and they were going to attempt to reach Gonaives on Monday.

In Port-de-Paix, the water level of the river Trois Rivieres is very high and some nearby villages on the banks are flooded. Most agricultural land in the vicinity is saturated, and most low lying plantations are under water. About 30 percent of Port-de-Paix city was covered by water along the coast. Some streets are blocked by mud and debris.

Floods and landslides devastated Haiti in May of this year leaving at least 1,500 people dead and spreading destruction in the southern part of the country.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, a Red Alert has been declared nationwide. Thousands of people in the northeast were stranded on Sunday as rivers overflowed their banks. Eleven people lost their lives, 261 were injured and six are missing.

The Yuna River overflowed on Saturday night, isolating four towns, where rapidly rising water levels forced more than 37,000 Dominicans to flee to shelters or to friends and family members.