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Haiti death toll hits 137 as floodwaters recede
Corpses surfaced in the muddy wreckage of this sodden city on Friday as floodwaters receded after Tropical Storm Hanna, raising the known death toll to 137.
- AP
- Published: 23:12 September 5, 2008
- A man carries an elderly woman on his back as he walks through a muddy street left behind by Tropical Storm Hanna in Gonaives, Haiti.
- Image Credit: AP
Gonaives: Corpses surfaced in the muddy wreckage of this sodden city on Friday as floodwaters receded after Tropical Storm Hanna, raising the known death toll to 137.
But the break in the weather is expected to be short - Hurricane Ike, now a category three hurricane - could sideswipe Haiti this weekend, even as international aid groups struggle to reach thousands of victims marooned without food or drinking water.
Soil saturated
"I am worried because the soil is completely impregnated with water and there is no way for the rivers to take more water," said Max Cocsi, who directs Belgium's mission in Haiti of Doctors Without Borders. "We don't need a hurricane - a storm would be enough."
Cocsi, who arrived in Gonaives on Thursday, said that no one knows how many have been killed. The focus now is on reaching the living, not recovering bodies.
Late Thursday, a few blocks from where UN peacekeepers stopped to dish out cooked rice from their own food supplies to a small crowd of hungry orphans, a woman's corpse in a floral dress was floating in a submerged intersection.
"I haven't eaten since Monday," 12-year-old Srita Omiscar said as she waited in line with 50 others.
Earlier in the day, a convoy rumbled out of the UN base on the edge of Gonaives toward the city, carrying some of the first food aid since Hanna struck four days ago.
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