Sept. 21, 2004
By Joseph Guyler Delva

GONAIVES, Haiti (Reuters) - Survivors of devastating flooding in Haiti wandered mud-clogged streets in search of food on Tuesday as officials said more than 700 people had been killed and at least 1,000 were missing.

Tropical Storm Jeanne swept north of Haiti during the weekend, drenching the impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million, inundating cities and sending deadly mudslides through towns and villages.

Officials at the Office of Civil Protection in Port-au-Prince said 709 deaths had been confirmed in the flood-stricken areas and 1,050 people were missing.

Most of the dead were in the swamped coastal city of Gonaives and the toll was likely to rise as relief workers reached areas isolated by the floods.

"As the water recedes we begin to see bodies emerge from the mud," said Fernando Arroyo, a U.N. official in Gonaives. "There are bodies scattered on the roads, in the streets."

The dead were to be buried in mass graves as soon as heavy machinery arrived, to avert an outbreak of disease, he said.

Relief supplies started to reach the worst-hit areas, but the pace was slowed by waterlogged roads and worries about security in a country that is still unstable after an armed revolt ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February.

"I lost five people in the floods and I don't have anything, no water, no food, nothing," said one stunned Gonaives resident, Mercidieu Pierre-Andre, 49.

Water was still waist-high in places and mud on the windows of homes illustrated a desperate tale of rising water that sent people clambering on to their roofs to survive. Some were still camped on the roofs of mud-filled homes on Tuesday, sleeping under plastic tarps on the only dry spots they could find.

Thousands of people were in shelters, some 600 of them finding refuge in the cathedral in Gonaives. Others who lost their homes and families tried to flag down trucks in hopes of catching rides to other cities to begin life anew.

U.N. officials said drinking water was urgently needed.

The World Food Program sent 12 trucks with 40 tons of food to Gonaives and hoped to start handing it out by Wednesday after ensuring that distribution points would be secure, said regional WFP spokesman Alejandro Chicheri.

CHRONIC FLOODING

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is chronically vulnerable to flooding because of widespread deforestation. Flooding in May killed about 2,000 people.

U.N. forces maintaining the peace after Aristide's departure were helping with rescue efforts and providing transport for relief shipments.

The hospital in Gonaives was flooded and only small amounts of medical supplies had reached the city so far, a U.N official said. Much of the medical care was being provided by Argentine peacekeepers.

Gonaives residents recounted clinging to trees to survive or seeing their relatives die before their eyes.

"The water started to grow high, but we never thought it was going to get so high," said Josephine Mesadieu, 20. "Then it started to get up to our necks, then I had to swim. My younger brother and sisters could not do so, they died."

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue visited flooded areas of Gonaives and the northern city of Port-de-Paix, and pledged to provide all possible aid.

"We don't have much means but we'll bring what we have," Latortue told a group of Port-de-Paix residents.

At the United Nations, interim President Boniface Alexandre appealed for world aid at the opening of the annual General Assembly session.

Tropical Storm Jeanne also killed 11 people in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and two in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Jeanne, now a hurricane with 90 mph winds, drifted in the Atlantic 515 miles east of the Bahamas' Great Abaco Island on Tuesday. Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it posed no immediate threat to land.

(Additional reporting by Evelyn Leopold at the United Nations)

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