Panic Erupts as Workers Struggle to Bury Storm Dead

Hungry, thirsty and increasingly desperate Haitians burned tyres in protest and attacked aid trucks and people carrying scarce food and water as workers struggled to bury thousands of victims of Tropical Storm Jeanne.

More than 1,100 were killed, 1,250 were missing and the toll was still rising, a week after the storm hit.

Hundreds pushed through a wooden barrier to get into Gonaives’ sole working clinic for treatment yesterday, but only one doctor was there. Some residents had grown so desperate to get rid of putrefying corpses they were burying them in their gardens.

Health workers feared an epidemic from the unburied bodies and animal carcasses in mud still knee-deep in places, overflowing sewage, lack of potable water and infections from injuries.

“Trucking in clean water to Gonaives is a logistical nightmare,” said Abby Maxman, the local director of Care, an international humanitarian agency.

Shoving and pushing, more than 100 people jumped on a dump truck carrying relief supplies collected by Rotary Club members from Port-au-Prince, the capital to the south. The truck tried to drive away but the crowd emptied it of food, water, medical gloves and matches in about 10 minutes.

People gulped down water as they continued shoving and trying to get more supplies. One man hit people with a metal bar, to force his way to the front of the mob.

“We collected all these supplies ... But at least it will find its way to people in need,” said Rotarian Gaetan Mentor.

Moments later, a mob followed citizens from the town of St Mark who were carrying cauldrons of hot food to a church for distribution. One man waved a wrench and yelled: ”You don’t want to make me use this!”

The government’s civil protection agency said more than 900 people had been treated for injuries, most for gashes from fallen zinc roofs. Medics from United Nations peacekeeping troops in Gonaives have helped treat the injured.

The main General Hospital is out of commission, medical supplies are running out and some aid trucks have been unable to reach Gonaives because the road was washed away or blocked.

About 300,000 were left homeless in Haiti’s north west province, which includes the port of Gonaives. The US government will provide more than £1.2 million in immediate disaster relief to Haiti’s flood victims in the coming days, Usaid spokesman Jose Fuentes said.

The official toll rose to 1,113 bodies recovered by yesterday – the vast majority in Gonaives – and nearly 1,000 injured, according to Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, spokesman for the UN Stabilisation Mission.

The 1,251 people missing and assumed washed to sea, buried in mud or floating in areas still made inaccessible by floods, “may be presumed dead”, he told The Associated Press.

Police erected barbed wire around their station yesterday after people fired shots at the station overnight. Officer Louis Francois said they feared attack by about 20 escaped inmates who escaped from jail during the storm.

Most of the city’s police officers were left homeless by the floods and were handicapped because they only had one vehicle that was not working he said. Their helplessness enraged residents, who have started throwing rocks at the few riot police the government sent in to help.

Aid workers fear an eruption of waterborne diseases, especially diarrhoea and cholera.

“It’s a critical situation in terms of epidemics, because of the bodies still in the streets, because people are drinking dirty water and scores are getting injuries from debris – huge cuts that are getting infected,” said Francoise Gruloos, Haiti director for the UN Children’s Fund.