GONAIVES, Haiti -Rescuers dug through mud and ruined homes for bodies yesterday, expecting the death toll of more than 600 from Tropical Storm Jeanne to rise even further, with half the crowded northern city of Gonaives still under water from the weekend's devastating winds and rain.
Gonaives was hit hardest in the latest tragedy to beset Haiti in a year of revolts, military interventions and devastating floods. Bodies, including many children, were stacked at the city's main morgue, where weeping relatives searched for loved ones.
At least 500 people were killed in the city, according to Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
I lost my kids and there's nothing I can do
said Jean Estimable, whose 2-year-old daughter was killed and another of his five children was missing and presumed dead.
All I have is complete despair and the clothes I'm wearing he said Monday, pointing to a floral dress and ripped pants borrowed from a neighbor.
Floods are particularly damaging in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, because it is almost completely deforested, leaving few roots to hold back rushing waters or mudslides. Most of the trees have been chopped down to make charcoal for cooking.
Residents waded through ankle-deep mud outside the mayor's office in Gonaives, where doctors were treating the wounded and aid workers were helping a woman give birth.
Elsewhere, 56 people were killed in northern Port-de-Paix and 17 died in the nearby town of Terre Neuve, officials said.
Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesman for the government civil protection agency, reported another 49 bodies recovered in other villages and towns, most in the northwest.
We expect to find dozens more bodies especially in Gonaives
as ... floodwaters recede
Deslorges said.
Although there were fears of many more dead on La Tortue island, Deslorges said, The government has been in contact with officials on La Tortue. Nothing happened there.
Jeanne lashed Haiti on Saturday, four months after devastating floods along the southern border of Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic. Some 1,700 bodies were recovered and 1,600 more were missing and presumed dead.
Gonaives, a city of about a quarter million people, also suffered fighting during the February rebellion that led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and left an estimated 300 dead.
All this in a year supposed to be dedicated to celebrating the 200th anniversary of the country's independence from France. Haiti, the only country to launch a successful rebellion against slavery, was the world's first black republic.
Jeanne regained hurricane strength over the Atlantic on Monday but posed no immediate threat to land. At 5 a.m. yesterday, it was moving east-northeast with 90 mph winds, about 445 miles east of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas.
The storm entered the Caribbean last week, killing seven people in Puerto Rico before heading to the Dominican Republic where it killed at least 18.
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The Associated Press
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Haitian families stay outside of their houses after flooding and mudslides in Gonaives, Haiti, Monday. Receding floodwaters raged through neighborhoods of Haiti's third-largest city, dragging people from their homes and forcing survivors to spend the nigh
