Death toll rising in storm-devastated Haiti
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A Haitian man unloads water donated by the World Food Program (Reuters: Logan Abassi)
Aid is slowly trickling in to Haiti, where hundreds have been found dead and more bodies are being found hourly, following the latest in a battery of storms which have crushed the country.
The death toll has topped 500 and many desperate residents have not eaten in since Tropical Storm Hanna lashed the poorest country in the Americas.
Haiti had been facing a possible new beating from Hurricane Ike, although that threat looks set to bypass the country now.
Ike has now strengthened again into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane as it churns westward across the Atlantic on a path that would take it through the Bahamas toward Cuba, the United States National Hurricane Centre said.
This would take it north of Haiti, but a tropical storm warning has been issued for the Caribbean country's northern peninsula.
It is feared more deaths could emerge from Tropical Storm Hanna.
"The toll is increasing hourly," warned the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"According to information from the Government we have reached more than 500 deaths."
Ground zero of the devastation is in Gonaives, a flood-prone north-western coast city where about 3,000 people died four years ago when it was drowned by Tropical Storm Jeanne.
Massive deforestation has left Haiti vulnerable to flooding and mudslides.
After Hanna struck earlier this week, many residents took refuge on the roofs of their homes before they were rescued by UN helicopters.
"The town of Gonaives has been completely devastated. The streets are lined with groups of people walking through the streets trying to find higher ground", said Parnell Denis, the contact for aid organisation Oxfam in Gonaives.
"Food supplies and water are scarce and the price of the food that's left is rising.
"The morale of people staying in the shelters is so very low; I am afraid to tell them that another storm is on its way."
Haiti has already been hit in recent weeks by two other storms, Gustav and Fay, which left nearly 120 people dead.
- AFP
