Port-au-Prince - The United Nations handed out food and
water to desperate Haitians on Friday after the first shipload of aid
arrived in the flooded and devastated city of Gonaives.
At least 163 people have died in Haiti as a result of Tropical
Storm Hanna, officials said Friday, as it sped toward the
south-eastern US coast.
Of the confirmed deaths, 119 in the region around Gonaives,
Marie-Alta Jean Baptiste, head of civil protection in Haiti, said
Friday night.
Hanna devastated crops in Haiti, the poorest country in the
Americas, and relief organizations fear that by the end of the year 4
million Haitians will be facing famine.
Also inundated by Tropical Storm Hanna were neighbouring Dominican
Republic, the Turks and Caicos islands to the north, the Bahamas and
Jamaica.
With winds of 110 kilometres per hour, Hanna is moving towards the
east coast of the US and was 95 kilometres east- south-east of
Charleston, South Carolina, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC)
said at 11 pm Friday (0300 GMT Saturday).
Forecasters at the Miami-based NHC were also tracking two other
storms - Ike and Josephine - that have been brewing in the Atlantic
Ocean and heading west.
Hurricane Ike, a dangerous Category 3 storm, was forecast to pass
just north of Haiti on Sunday and is almost certain to bring rain
more to Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, and the surrounding
flood plain.
Haiti was lashed by Hurricane Gustav, which killed more than 70
people, and before that Tropical Storm Fay, which left at least 40
dead two weeks ago.
The European Union has allocated 2.8 million dollars in fast-track
relief funding. The funds, to be used for vital needs, is in addition
to 2.8 million dollars announced on September 1 in the aftermath of
Hurricane Gustav
'We have reports of tens of thousands people who need the most
basic help,' Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development
and Humanitarian Aid, said. 'Their situation is desperate and we must
get relief to them as fast as possible.'
John Holmes, chief coordinator of the UN humanitarian emergency
programme, said Friday that UN agencies have deployed workers while
the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti was helping with evacuations in
flooded areas.
Holmes estimated 600,000 Haitians need help, including 250,000 in
Gonaives district alone.
The authorities were also considering the possibility of
evacuating the city of Gonaives. The city had already been devastated
in September 2004, after 3,000 people died in a mudslide caused by
Tropical Storm Jeanne.
With maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometres per hour, Ike was
developing as a category 3 hurricane on the 1-to-5 Saffir-Simpson
scale and likely to hit the Bahamas first late Saturday, the NHC said.
'Some weakening is forecast during the next 24 hours, but Ike is
expected to be a major hurricane in a couple of days,' the hurricane
centre said Friday.
In the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola with Haiti, Emergency Operations Centre director Juan
Mendez warned that 'the evacuation of all areas at risk was launched
Wednesday and is compulsory.'
He said at least three dams in the country were at full capacity,
and as authorities started to release some of the water they moved
residents from neighbouring towns.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Josephine was downgraded to a depression
Friday with sustained winds of 55 kilometres per hour. Its centre was
west of the Cape Verde Islands and as it moved west-northwest it was
expected to weaken over the next 24 hours.
USA
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