Jeanne leaves more than 1,070 dead in Haiti

[KoriEllis]

Jeanne leaves more than 1,070 dead in Haiti
At least 1,000 more are missing in Caribbean nation

Wednesday, September 22, 2004


GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) -- Workers used dump trucks to empty more than 100 bodies into a 14-foot-deep hole on Wednesday -- the first mass grave for the more than 1,070 flood victims of Tropical Storm Jeanne. Bystanders shrieked, held their noses against the stench and demanded that officials collect bodies in waterlogged fields.

The government late Wednesday said up to 1,250 people were still missing and that the death toll could rise to 2,000 people.

Meteorologists, meanwhile, said Jeanne could strike the United States by this weekend. It was too soon to tell where, but the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, warned people in the northwest and central Bahamas and along the southeast U.S. coast to beware of dangerous surf and rip currents kicked up by Jeanne in the coming days.

At 5 p.m., Jeanne was centered about 500 miles east of the Bahamian island of Great Abaco. It was moving west-southwest and was expected to strengthen and turn toward the west in the next 24 hours. Hurricane-force winds of 100 mph extended 45 miles and tropical-storm force winds another 140 miles.

In Gonaives, U.N. peacekeepers fired into the air to keep a hungry crowd at bay as aid workers handed out the first food in days for some in this city devastated by the floods. Residents were growing impatient because of decaying bodies and a lack of food and drinking water.

"We're demanding they come and take the bodies from our fields. Dogs are eating them," said Jean Lebrun, a 35-year-old farmer. "We can only drink the water people died in."

Dieufort Deslorges of the government's civil protection agency said 1,013 bodies had been recovered in Gonaives and 58 elsewhere. He said some of the missing likely died and that their bodies washed out to sea.

In Gonaives, rescuers pulled bodies from mud and rubble -- some still under water five days after Jeanne lashed the area with torrential rains for some 30 hours -- then added them to the pile in body bags that lay in mud and grime in front of three morgues.

Red Cross, government officials and aid workers met Wednesday to discuss how to dispose of the flyblown and decomposing corpses.

On Wednesday, government adviser Carl Murat Cantave revealed they had come up against opposition when Red Cross workers took a truckload of bodies to the Bois Marchand cemetery on Monday and were stoned by residents.

He said police had negotiated with residents about the health hazards of leaving the corpses unburied, and persuaded them to agree. Aid workers said the cemetery is the only one in the city not submerged by floodwaters.

Graveyard manager Bony Jeudy said 78 people have been buried at Bois Marchand, some in mass graves, since Monday.

"They come from all over, mostly on wooden carts. Adults, children and babies. They were brought in by friends, families and strangers," he said of the bodies.

Deslorges said there still were dozens of unrecovered bodies. "There are bodies in the water, in the mud, in collapsed houses and floating in houses that were absolutely covered by the floods."

Last week, Jeanne also killed seven people in Puerto Rico and 19 in Dominican Republic.

On Wednesday, carcasses of pigs, goats and dogs still were being carried by streams of water in Gonaives, also threatening survivors' health.

Martine Vice-Aimee, an 18-year-old mother of two whose home was destroyed and who lined up with dozens of others outside Gonaives' Roman Catholic cathedral, said people already are getting ill.

"People are 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 she and two daughters were drinking "Creole water" -- from shallow wells that is dirty since the floods.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said contaminated water raised concerns about possible outbreaks of water-related diseases.

"The situation is not getting better because people have been without food or water for three or four days," said the federation's representative in Haiti, Hans Havik. "The population is getting more and more desperate. People are getting more aggressive."

Vice-Aimee said she didn't know what she was waiting for outside the cathedral, where hours earlier workers from the international aid agency CARE had handed out loaves of bread and nearly been mobbed. She said she was afraid to fight her way through the crowd, which was brought under control by U.N. peacekeepers who fired into the air. No one was hurt.

As they waited, one woman yelled at a Red Cross worker on the balcony of City Hall "Help me. I'm hungry." The Red Cross volunteer yelled back "I'm hungry, too."

Havik's federation launched a worldwide appeal Wednesday for $3.3 million to fund relief operations to 40,000 Haitian victims, and several nations were sending aid.

[SpurGal]

My heart goes out to all of the victims and their families...

I know It must be tough to deal with something like this In Haiti. Unfortunately, they don't have the financial resources to handle these type of things.

I pray that God gives them all the comfort they need at this time.