At least 90 killed as Tropical Storm Jeanne hits Haiti

By AMY BRACKEN
The Associated Press

ARIANA CUBILLOS / AP Flooding from Tropical Storm Jeanne left much of Gonaives, Haiti, waist deep in water. At least 90 people were believed killed.

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GONAIVES, Haiti — Tropical Storm Jeanne brought raging floodwaters to Haiti, killing at least 90 people and leaving dozens of families huddled on rooftops as the storm pushed farther out into the open seas yesterday, officials said.

Residents said the flooding caught them by surprise Saturday night when it tore through the northwestern coastal town of Gonaives and surrounding areas, covering crops and turning roads into rivers.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and his interior minister toured the area in a U.N. truck yesterday but were not able to reach many areas because of washed-out roads. Much of Gonaives was still under waist-deep water, and aid workers were having trouble evacuating all the people in need.

"We don't know how many dead there are," Latortue said. "2004 has been a terrible year."

The storm hit Haiti four months after floods killed more than 3,000 people on the Haitian-Dominican border. In February, a three-week rebellion ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and left about 300 dead.

Workers with the Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas Internationalis picked up 62 bodies in pickup trucks and counted 18 more at a morgue in Gonaives alone, said Rev. Venel Suffrard, the organization's local director. Suffrard said he expected the toll to rise.

The floods killed 10 more people in other parts of the country, mostly in the northwest, said Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesman for the interior ministry.

Much of Haiti is deforested and unable to hold back floodwaters.

A World Health Organization worker said he saw people in downtown Gonaives pushing wooden carts filled with cadavers. "There is no life left in the center of town," U.N. health worker Pierre Adam said.
 
Jean-Baptiste Agilus, a 46-year-old teacher, said a neighbor and her two children, ages 12 and 15, were swept away in the rising waters. "The water rushed into their home, all the homes in the neighborhood," he said. "It destroyed everything."

Agilus said he would stay at a friend's house and said he had heard others say they would sleep on the street. Many families, though, remained on their flat concrete rooftops surrounded by bundles of belongings.

Argentine troops, part of a U.N. mission and responsible for patrolling Gonaives, treated at least 150 injuries, mostly bad cuts after people stepped on sharp debris.

The commander of the Argentine brigade, Lt. Col. Santiago Ferreyra, described massive destruction and said he saw at least 10 bodies floating as he drove Saturday night from the town of Ennery to Gonaives, about 20 miles away.

"There are a lot more that we haven't seen yet," Ferreyra said. "A lot of people are dead everywhere; it's just awful. It's not just Gonaives; it's the suburbs."

Jeanne didn't appear likely to hit the storm-battered southeastern United States. It was expected to turn south over the next two days and head back out into the Atlantic, away from Florida and other states that have been battered by three major storms already this season.