September 20, 2004 13:36 EDT
Bloomberg News
Tropical Storm Jeanne Kills 250 in Northern Haiti, UN Reports
Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Jeanne killed at least 250 people and injured at least 380 in northern Haiti, the United Nations said.
UN spokeswoman Denise Cook said the bodies of 250 people were in a morgue in the town of Gonaives on the north coast of the Caribbean island nation, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The town was ``80 percent'' flooded, she said.
Haitian interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue accompanied UN peacekeeping troops from Argentina on 12 helicopters to northern Haiti yesterday, Cook said. They transported 380 injured people to the capital of Port au Prince,'' Cook said.
The UN today is rushing emergency supplies to Gonaives, Port de Paix and Isle de Tortue on the north coast of Haiti, according to Cook.
Latortue declared the area a disaster zone, the Efe news agency said.
Brazil-led UN peacekeepers -- 2,259 soldiers and 224 civilian police -- took control of the Caribbean island nation in June from a force headed by the U.S. Former Haitian leader Jean- Bertrand Aristide stepped down from power this February during civil war.
Jeanne's center is 230 kilometers (145 miles) east, northeast of the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas and is heading out into the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center Web site.
Flooding in May killed 1,300 people in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic and left thousands of others homeless. The damage was made worse by deforestation inside Haiti.
Haiti, afflicted by corruption, drug trafficking and Illiteracy, had a per capita income of $361 last year. Unemployment is as high as 60 percent and the average Haitian's life expectancy is 53 years, according to the World Bank.
Bloomberg News
Tropical Storm Jeanne Kills 250 in Northern Haiti, UN Reports
Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Jeanne killed at least 250 people and injured at least 380 in northern Haiti, the United Nations said.
UN spokeswoman Denise Cook said the bodies of 250 people were in a morgue in the town of Gonaives on the north coast of the Caribbean island nation, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The town was ``80 percent'' flooded, she said.
Haitian interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue accompanied UN peacekeeping troops from Argentina on 12 helicopters to northern Haiti yesterday, Cook said. They transported 380 injured people to the capital of Port au Prince,'' Cook said.
The UN today is rushing emergency supplies to Gonaives, Port de Paix and Isle de Tortue on the north coast of Haiti, according to Cook.
Latortue declared the area a disaster zone, the Efe news agency said.
Brazil-led UN peacekeepers -- 2,259 soldiers and 224 civilian police -- took control of the Caribbean island nation in June from a force headed by the U.S. Former Haitian leader Jean- Bertrand Aristide stepped down from power this February during civil war.
Jeanne's center is 230 kilometers (145 miles) east, northeast of the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas and is heading out into the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center Web site.
Flooding in May killed 1,300 people in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic and left thousands of others homeless. The damage was made worse by deforestation inside Haiti.
Haiti, afflicted by corruption, drug trafficking and Illiteracy, had a per capita income of $361 last year. Unemployment is as high as 60 percent and the average Haitian's life expectancy is 53 years, according to the World Bank.
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