- Title: HAITI: HUNDREDS BURIED IN HAITI AS FLOODS DEATHS TOP 1,000
- Date: 22nd September 2004
- Summary: (W1) GONAIVES, HAITI (SEPTEMBER 22, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. AERIALS OF FLOODED AREA (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. LAS/SLV OF PEOPLE WADING THROUGH WATER ON STREETS (2 SHOTS) 0.17 3. SLV VEHICLE SUBMERGED IN FLOOD WATERS 0.21 4. SLV PEOPLE WASHING DISHES IN FLOOD WATERS 0.24 5. SLV PEOPLE WADING THROUGH FLOODED STREETS 0.29 6. SLV WOMAN WASHING DISHES IN FLOOD WATERS 0.32 7. SLV BOYS WALKING ON RUBLE 0.37 8. SV WOMAN BEING TRANSPORTED ON A STRETCHER 0.43 9. CU/SV/SLV ARGENTINE PEACEKEEPERS GIVING MEDICAL CARE TO FLOOD VICTIMS (9 SHOTS) 1.16 10. SLV/SV VARIOUS OF WORKERS PUTTING BODIES IN PILE (4 SHOTS) 1.32 11. SLV MAN BURNING CORPSE OF HORSE 1.42 12. LV/SLV OF PEOPLE WAITING IN LINE TO RECEIVE WATER AND FOOD (2 SHOTS) 1.49 13. SV PEACE KEEPERS HOLDING CROWD BACK 1.56 14. MCU (Creole) FLOOD VICTIM, JEANNETTE, SAYING: "I got water all around me and I have four kids at home and I don't have food to give them." 2.04 15. SV OF PEOPLE PUSHING AND SHOVING TO GET FOOD (4 SHOTS) 2.24 16. SV PEACEKEEPER STANDING GUARD 2.27 17. MCU (Creole) UNIDENTIFIED FLOOD VICTIM SAYING: "The water forced us out from the area. The water killed a lot of people and the UN does not want to let us in to get food." 2.35 18. CU PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH FLOODED STREETS 2.40 19. SV PEOPLE PUTTING MATTRESS IN BACK OF TRUCK 2.44 20. SLV PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH RUBBLE 2.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th October 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GONAIVES, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Reuters ID: LVAE2JQLXNZ8X01FI7855PRLYWY6
- Story Text: Hundreds buried in Haiti as flood deaths top 1,000.
Emergency food and medical care was distributed to
some ot the thousands of people made homeless by Tropical
Storm Jeanne on Wednesday (September 22, 2004) as Haiti began
burying hundreds of flood victims in mass graves.
A government official said the death toll rose to 1,008
in the Artibonite region around the northern coastal city
of Gonaives and 72 in Haiti's Northwest province.
Another 1,000 people were missing and the final death
count was likely to hit 2,000, he said.
Walls of water roared down from the Caribbean country's
deforested hills as the storm passed north of Haiti during
the weekend, and left Gonaives and Port-de-Paix, another
northern city, under a dense crust of mud.
Government workers and U.N. peacekeepers were burying
the dead in mass graves to prevent the spread of disease.
The U.N.'s World Food Program said its first convoy of
trucks carrying 40 metric tons of food arrived Tuesday
(September 21) night and aid agencies were distributing
rice, beans, cooking oil and loaves of fresh bread.
Police tried to keep order as desperately hungry people
swarmed the food distribution sites.
"The water forced us out from the area. The water
killed a lot of people and the UN does not want to let us
in to get food," complained one man.
The WFP has long provided food for 500,000 people in
the poorest country of the Americas, and increased
operations after a violent revolt forced ex-President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee into exile on Feb. 29.
Devastating floods and mudslides in May, in which about
2,000 people died, further aggravated the humanitarian
disaster facing the county. Haiti is chronically vulnerable
to flooding because of widespread deforestation caused by
Haitians digging up roots to make charcoal for cooking.
U.N. forces maintaining the peace after Aristide's departure
were helping with rescue and relief efforts.
The international Red Cross, meanwhile, launched a
worldwide appeal for $3.3 million to help the flood
victims.
Jeanne also killed 11 people in the Dominican Republic,
which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti and two
in the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico.
By 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Wednesday, Jeanne was 500
miles (800 km) east of Great Abaco island in the
northeastern Bahamas and moving slowly west-southwest.
Packing winds of 100 mph (160 kph), the storm was
expected to swing to the west eventually and may threaten
the east coast of the United States next week, the U.S.
National Hurricane Center said. Florida has already been
battered by three big hurricanes this season.
Two other storms continued to swirl through the
Atlantic. Hurricane Karl was about 1,400 miles (2,240 km)
west-southwest of the Azores and unlikely to threaten land.
Tropical Storm Lisa was also far from land, at about
1,205 miles (1,930 km) west of the Cape Verde islands.
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