Hanna Death Toll in Haiti Rises to 19

Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation news agency website on 3 September

Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Authorities in Haiti Wednesday reported that at least 19 people were killed as Tropical Storm Hanna caused extensive flooding and mudslides in the north of the impoverished Caribbean island.

Ten people were killed by floods in the northern city of Gonaives, 94 miles north of the capital, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency there.

But Mayor Stephen Moise said the death toll could rise. He explained that vehicles were unable to enter the flooded city to determine the exact number of fatalities or the extent of the damage.

The United Nations says its peacekeeping mission in Haiti

– MINUSTAH – was assisting local authorities in the rescue and relief efforts.

It said peacekeepers were assessing the safety of roads and bridges in the wake of the storm, as part of the technical and logistical assistance provided to authorities.

“The UN mission provided a helicopter to help lift stranded patients to the third floor of the hospital in Gonaives to escape flooding,” MINUSTAH spokesperson Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said.

“As soon as meteorological conditions allow a helicopter will be dispatched to assist the evacuation,” she added.

Haiti was hit by Hanna just a week after Hurricane Gustav killed 77 people there. Eight more were killed by that system in neighbouring Dominican Republic and a further 12 died in Jamaica.

Hanna, which is moving steadily towards the Bahamas, has already drenched that country and the Turks and Caicos Islands with heavy rains.

The storm is expected to produce as much as 12 inches of rain over the southeastern Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, eastern Cuba and Puerto Rico and rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Miami advised.

According to the NHC’s 2 p.m. advisory, Hanna, which was carrying maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, was getting larger but not stronger.

It was located just south of the Caicos Islands. Hanna was heading towards the north-northwest near 10 miles per hour and on the forecast track, the centre was expected to be moving through or just east of the central and northwestern Bahamas over the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, two other storms – Ike and Josephine – were Wednesday moving towards the Caribbean Sea.

Ike is almost a hurricane, with maximum sustained winds increasing to near 70 miles per hour. But the NHC said it was too early to determine what, if any, land areas might be directly affected by the storm.

At that time it was located about 740 miles east-northeast of the Leeward Islands and forecast to move over the open waters of the west-central Atlantic during the next few days.

Tropical Storm Josephine is also a little stronger over the Eastern Atlantic, carrying maximum sustained winders near 65 miles per hour.

It was located about 305 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and was moving towards the west near 10 miles per hour.

Forecasters said Wednesday that little change in strength is forecast through Thursday, but a weakening trend is forecast to being Friday.

Originally published by Caribbean Media Corporation news agency website, Bridgetown, in English 1830 3 Sep 08.

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