23264: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Jeanne (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   GONAIVES, Sept 24 (AP) -- U.N. troops fired smoke grenades Friday as
crowds of Haitian flood victims tried to break into a food distribution
site, increasingly desperate over the slow pace of relief after Tropical
Storm Jeanne devastated the city.
   At least 1,160 people were killed in last weekend's storm and crews are
continuing to find bodies in the mud and debris. Another 1,250 people
remained missing.
   About 500 people gathered at a Roman Catholic school where CARE
International passed out food to women only in hopes of reducing the
crowds. The crowd swelled, however, and men, women and children tried to
push through an iron gate.
   Argentine U.N. troops fired grenades, chasing people away. But the
sunburned, unwashed flood victims returned in surges once the air cleared
of smoke.
   "We need everything -- bread, clothes, clean water, food," said Mosau
Alveus, 25, who showed up at 6 a.m. and came away hours later with just a
bag of grain.
   Genevieve Montaguere, a nun from Guadeloupe, said the school distributed
food for 1,000 families but ran out of drinking water.
   Mud has formed a crust across this city of 250,000. Hungry and thirsty
survivors -- some of whom lost entire families and everything they own in
last week's floods -- were becoming increasingly desperate.
   "This is crazy," said Arito Ferreira, a Portuguese police officer among
the 650 U.N. peacekeepers in Gonaives. "They come in here without warning.
They are trying to do good but people will get hurt."
   An 18-wheeler carrying relief supplies from the Church of God was
attacked by residents when it entered the city. People jumped on the moving
truck, pried open the doors and threw out boxes of supplies. Troops shoved
and pushed crowds off the truck.
   "It's dangerous and difficult, but we have to come here," said Keteline
Richards, 24, who lined up at the school for a second day looking for aid.
   The food carriers battled their way to Gonaives from the port of St.
Marc to the south, fording floodwaters and mudslides that remain a hazard
on National Route 1. At least three truckloads of aid were mired in ditches
along the flooded road Thursday.
   Poorly maintained roads disintegrated and utilities failed, compounding
problems for relief workers.
   "Trucking in clean water to Gonaives is a logistical nightmare," said
Abby Maxman, a local director for CARE.
   Floodwaters finally receded Friday in the seaside slum of Raboteau, one
of the hardest-hit areas. Mud caked over animal carcasses and storm debris,
and people rushed to clean mounds from their homes -- those without shovels
using branches from downed trees.
   Many residents held limes to their noses to mask the smell of decaying
bodies and overflowing sewage.
   The General Hospital was out of commission because of knee-deep mud
believed to still hold bodies, and medical supplies were running out.
Health workers feared an outbreak of waterborne diseases.
   "It's a critical situation in terms of epidemics," said Francoise
Gruloos, Haiti director for the U.N. Children's Fund.
   Some 1,013 bodies were counted and buried in the city by Thursday night,
said Dieufort Deslorges, spokesman for the government's civil protection
agency.
   But an Associated Press photographer on the ground watched people stop
the burial of a truckload of bodies Thursday. Cemetery workers demanded
money for the extra work. Others objected that no religious rites
accompanied the burials -- many Haitians believe a corpse interred without
ceremony will wander and commit evil acts.
   "We stopped the burial yesterday because it smelled so bad," gravedigger
Jeudi Nestin said. "It's infecting our lungs and they're not paying us."
   Other protesters wanted officials to recover bodies in waterlogged
surrounding fields and to help search for the missing.
   "They may be presumed dead," said Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman
for the U.N. stabilization mission in Haiti, which put the number of
missing at 1,251.
   Deslorges said the number of bodies recovered had risen to 1,160 by
Friday morning and nearly 300,000 people were homeless in Haiti's northwest
province.
   In the neighboring Dominican Republic, the death toll rose to 24 after
rescue workers discovered five bodies crushed in a collapsed cave near the
northern tourist town of Samana.
   Jeanne also killed seven people in Puerto Rico, making the overall
Caribbean death toll at least 1,191.
   At dawn Friday, a group of farmers walked across fields turned to
swamps, carrying empty buckets and sacks in hopes of buying something to
eat at Aupotau market town where they usually sell their produce -- the
closest place that is not devastated, they said.
   Two overcrowded tap-taps -- Haiti's gaily painted truck-buses -- passed
them by before they got a ride, indicating the shortage of transportation
because of flooding and a shortage of gasoline. Where it could be found,
gas had tripled to $6 a gallon.
   Only Antonie Netsede had something to sell -- a sack of eggplant she dug
from the mud that had destroyed her onions and shallots.
   "This is the last of what I have," she said.
   Several nations have been flying in relief food and supplies. In
addition, members of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies have sent aid, the federation's Hans Havik said.
   But getting the relief supplies to the needy would be difficult, he
said.
   "We're working on organizing security at the distribution points because
this is an increasingly important issue with people going four or five days
without food or water," Havik said.
   The U.S. government has said it would provide more than $2 million -- an
increase from $60,000 that some criticized for its paucity.
   The crisis was only the latest in long-suffering Haiti, a country of 8
million people that has suffered 30 coups d'etats fed on greed that
perpetuated endemic poverty. This week's tragedy was fueled by massive
deforestation that left surrounding valleys unable to hold the rain
unleashed by some 30 hours of pounding by Jeanne.
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   On the Net:
   National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
   Weather Underground storm site: http://www.wunderground.com/tropical