U.S. Water News Online
GONAIVES, Haiti -- Workers dug new mass graves for corpses that still littered this flood-ravaged city as the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to more than 1,070 and residents grew increasingly agitated from a lack of food and drinkable water.
Health workers feared an epidemic from the unburied bodies, raw sewage in drinking water and infections from injuries. About 250,000 were left homeless in Haiti's northwest province, which includes the port of Gonaives, from the weekend storm.
Officials say the death toll could reach 2,000, with more than 1,250 reported missing and presumed washed out to sea, buried in mud or floating in houses still inaccessible to rescuers.
Survivors who spent the night crammed into schools, churches and on rooftops slogged through contaminated, ankle-deep mud in Gonaives, where more bodies lay unclaimed in waterlogged fields. Residents held limes to their noses against the stench of the bodies and overflowing latrines.
"There are so many bodies, you smell them but you don't see them," said farmer Louise Roland. She said her rice and corn field was under water so she walked miles to town to try to get food.
Aid workers feared that waterborne diseases could erupt.
"It's a critical situation in terms of epidemics, because of the bodies still in the streets, because people are drinking dirty water and scores are getting injuries from debris -- huge cuts that are getting infected," said Francoise Gruloos, Haiti director for the U.N. Children's Fund.
Martine Vice-Aimee, an 18-year-old mother of two whose home was destroyed, said people already were falling ill.
"People are getting sick from the water, they're walking in it, their skin is getting itchy and rashes. The water they're drinking is giving them stomach aches."
Limited distribution by aid workers left most people still hungry and thirsty.
Gruloos said some residents were marooned on the roofs of homes surrounded by water and mud, scared to climb down into the filth. People defecated on sidewalks.
The government's civil protection agency said more than 900 people have been treated, most for cuts and gashes. But the main General Hospital was out of commission, medical supplies were running out, and some aid trucks couldn't reach Gonaives because part of the road was washed away.
Trucks dumped up to 200 bodies into a mass grave at sunset, but hundreds more were piled up outside morgues without electricity, awaiting burial.
There was no funeral ceremony when the bodies were dumped into a 14-foot-deep hole at sunset. Dozens of bystanders shrieked and told officials to collect nearby unburied bodies.
"We're demanding they come and take the bodies from our fields. Dogs are eating them," said bystander Jean Lebrun.
Only a couple dozen bodies have been identified, and nobody was taking count at the Bois Marchand cemetery -- the only one in the city not under water.
"We can only drink the water people died in," the 35-year-old farmer said, citing a lack of potable water six days after the storm's passage.
Dieufort Deslorges, spokesman for the government's civil protection agency, said the confirmed death toll rose to 1,072, with 1,013 bodies recovered in Gonaives alone.
Aid agencies have dry food stocked in Gonaives, but few have the means to cook. Food for the Poor, based in Deerfield, Fla., said its truckloads of relief were unable to reach the city. Troops from the Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping forcing were ferrying in some supplies by helicopter.
Peacekeepers fired into the air to keep a crowd at bay as aid workers handed out loaves of bread -- the first food in days for some.
"The situation is not getting better because people have been without food or water for three or four days," said Hans Havik, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The federation appealed for $3.3 million to fund relief operations to 40,000 Haitian victims, and several nations were sending help.
The disaster follows devastating floods in May, along the Haiti-Dominican Republic border, which left 1,191 dead and 1,484 missing in Haiti and 395 dead and 274 missing on the Dominican side. The countries share the island of Hispaniola.
Return to the U.S. Water News Archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields