LAT-Haiti Storm Toll Could Reach 2,000

[LiviaOlivia]

By Carol J. Williams
LA Times Staff Writer

September 23, 2004

GONAIVES, Haiti — The death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne threatened to reach 2,000 Wednesday, as tens of thousands of survivors wailed for food and water from rooftops, where they were marooned by knee-deep moats of mud and sewage.

Four days after residents were washed from their homes, more than 1,000 bodies had been counted in Gonaives and nearly 60 in other parts of the island's northwestern province, said Dieufort Deslorges of the civil protection agency. The number of missing rose past 1,200.

So desperate were the survivors that Argentine troops in a U.N. aid convoy had to fire eight shots to stop rioting outside a school so the World Food Program and the Oxfam charity could begin handing out the first loaves of bread and plastic bottles of water.

<snip>

"We could only save the children. We have nothing else — it's all gone," said Wistha Jacques, whose four preschoolers slept on piles of damp clothing plucked from the filthy water that had reached the eaves Sunday. "We've had nothing to eat since we came up here and only droplets of water."

<snip>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-haiti23sep23,1,7203551.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. God help these poor people

the US certainly won't.

[MaineDem]

2. Good Lord!

What devastation! This is so desperately sad.

I certainly hope the world community follows up on this.

[allemand]

3. Deforestation is to blame

Don't forget, this is already the second time deadly floods hit Haiti:

"2004 May - Severe floods in south, and in parts of neighbouring Dominican Republic, leave more than 2,000 dead or disappeared."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1202857.stm

Haiti's deforestation led to deadly floods says PM
Saturday, May 29, 2004

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AFP): Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue on Friday attributed Haiti's deadly flash floods to the Caribbean country's massive deforestation.

"The deep cause of this situation is the deforestation of Haiti," Latortue said at the summit of European and Latin American leaders in Guadalajara, Mexico.

"We have lost more than 80 percent of forest because people like to use wood charcoal as a source of energy," said Latortue, adding that the death toll in Haiti could rise to between 1,000 and 1,200 people.
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2004/05/29/floods.htm