TROPICAL STORM JEANNE CONTINUES TO POUND HAITI

 

NEW YORK, 27 September (OCHA) -- Storm-battered Haiti continues to feel the effects of a series of devastating storms, the latest being tropical storm Jeanne.

Humanitarian assessments reveal that there are urgent needs for shelter materials, beds, sheets, tools and fuel, and that the risk of the spread of water-borne diseases remains high.  United Nations humanitarian agencies continue to provide relief where possible, but are hindered by damaged roads and the threat of looting.  Troops from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known by its French acronym MINUSTAH, are assisting humanitarians by providing security for food distributions.  The MINUSTAH assigned an additional 140 troops for this purpose over the weekend.  Argentine troops in Haiti have also distributed food aid and water purification tablets to civilians.

Over the past few days United Nations humanitarian agencies and the non-governmental organization partners have distributed more than 120 metric tons of food.  The World Health Organization has distributed enough basic medicines, food and household materials to last 10,000 people for three months.  Non-governmental organizations are delivering clean water by tanker truck, but they are unable to assess exactly how many of the presumably high number of people in need of clean drinking water are receiving it.

As floodwaters recede and access opens up, humanitarian agencies are discovering that flooding has killed hundreds and affected thousands more in the towns and villages north and west of hard-hit Gonaives.  In Ennery, for example, more than 100 people were killed, 800 families affected and 150 houses destroyed.  The road to the northern port of Cap Haitien, where some 1,600 people have been affected by flooding, has been severed in four places, making travel next to impossible.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA NY, tel.: 917 367 5126, mobile: 917 892 1679; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel.: 41 22 917 2653, mobile: 41(0) 79 473 4570.

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