WASHINGTON – The State Department says the U.S. death toll in the Haiti earthquake has risen to 15.

The total includes one State Department employee and 14 private American citizens.

The State Department had reported on Friday that the toll was six confirmed dead, plus 15 presumed to have died.

On Saturday the department made no mention of numbers presumed dead. It said a total of 15 were confirmed dead. It also reported 23 Americans seriously injured and three U.S. government employees missing. </s> Haiti quake death toll rises to 17 as govt calls for help

PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti (AP) — The death toll from a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit near northern Haiti has increased to 17.

Officials say nine people died in the north coastal city of Port-de-Paix, seven in Gros Morne and one in Saint-Louis de Nord.

The government said late Monday that another 333 people were injured and that at least 7,783 families are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Saturday's quake also destroyed four schools and damaged thousands of homes.

A magnitude 5.2 aftershock hit Haiti on Sunday, prompting thousands of people to sleep outdoors for fear of their safety.

Officials in Haiti have struggled to shore up buildings due to the two major fault lines along Hispaniola, which is the island shared with the Dominican Republic. </s> LES CAYES, Haiti — Haiti's death toll climbed Thursday as rescue crews began reaching remote corners cut off when Hurricane Matthew slammed into the country's southwest peninsula, the first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in more than a half century.

Bodies started to appear as waters receded in some areas two days after 145 mph (235 kph) winds smashed concrete walls, flattened palm trees and tore roofs off homes, forcing thousands of Haitians to flee. At least 122 people died in Haiti, the headquarters of the Civil Protection Agency said Thursday night, and authorities expected the number to rise. Mayors and other local officials in marooned areas were reporting higher numbers. Overall, 128 confirmed deaths have been attributed to Matthew in the Caribbean.

Those killed in Haiti included a woman and her 6-year-old daughter who frantically abandoned their flimsy home and headed to a nearby church to seek shelter as Matthew surged in early Tuesday, said Ernst Ais, mayor of the town of Cavaillon.

"On the way to the church, the wind took them," Ais told The Associated Press.

Officials were especially concerned about the department of Grand-Anse on the northern tip of the peninsula, where 38 of the known deaths were reported, the highest toll for any area.

"Devastation is everywhere," said Pilus Enor, mayor of the town of Camp Perrin. "Every house has lost its roof. All the plantations have been destroyed. ...This is the first time we see something like this."

In the nearby seaport of Les Cayes, many people searched for clean water as they lugged mattresses and other belongings they were able to salvage.

"Nothing is going well," said Jardine Laguerre, a teacher. "The water took what little money we had. We are hungry."

Authorities and aid workers were just beginning to get a clear picture of what they fear is the country's biggest disaster in years.

Officials with the Pan American Health Organization warned Thursday about a possible surge in cholera cases because of the widespread flooding caused by Matthew. Haiti's cholera outbreak has killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010, when it was introduced into the country's biggest river from a U.N. base where Nepalese peacekeepers were deployed.

Before hitting Haiti, the storm was blamed for four deaths in the Dominican Republic, one in Colombia and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

In the coming days, U.S. military personnel equipped with nine helicopters were expected to help deliver food and water to hard-hit areas.

While recovery efforts continued in Haiti, Matthew pummeled the Bahamas on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the capital of Nassau, but the storm ripped off roofs, uprooted trees and caused flooding that trapped some people in their homes. Authorities urged people to stay indoors while they conducted search and rescue operations.

"This is the most intense hurricane I have ever been through," a Nassau resident, 43-year-old Jose Ageeb, said in a message to the AP. "And I have been through many." </s> PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti (AP) — The death toll from a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit near northern Haiti has increased to 17. Officials say nine people died in the north coastal city of Port-de-Paix, seven in…

PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti (AP) — The death toll from a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit near northern Haiti has increased to 17.

Officials say nine people died in the north coastal city of Port-de-Paix, seven in Gros Morne and one in Saint-Louis de Nord.

The government said late Monday that another 333 people were injured and that at least 7,783 families are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Saturday’s quake also destroyed four schools and damaged thousands of homes.

A magnitude 5.2 aftershock hit Haiti on Sunday, prompting thousands of people to sleep outdoors for fear of their safety.

Officials in Haiti have struggled to shore up buildings due to the two major fault lines along Hispaniola, which is the island shared with the Dominican Republic.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> Hurricane Matthew: Haiti death toll hits 1,000 as victims are buried in mass graves

Posted

As the death toll from Hurricane Matthew in Haiti rises to 1,000 and cholera spreads in the devastated south-west, the nation has started to bury its dead in mass graves, an official says.

The powerful hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, slammed into Haiti on Tuesday (local time), bringing 233 kilometre-per-hour winds and torrential rains.

Numbers from local officials showed 1,000 people were killed by the storm in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas.

The official death toll from the central civil protection agency is 336, a slower count because officials must visit each village to confirm the numbers.

Authorities had to start burying the dead in mass graves in Jeremie as the bodies were starting to decompose, said Kedner Frenel, the most senior central government official in the Grand'Anse region on Haiti's western peninsula.

Mr Frenel said 522 people died in Grand'Anse alone.

A tally of death reported by mayors from 15 of 18 municipalities in Sud Department on the south side of the peninsula showed 386 people there.

In the rest of the country, 92 people died, the same tally showed.

Mr Frenel said there was great concern about the cholera spreading, and that authorities were focused on getting water, food and medication to the thousands of people living in shelters.

Cholera causes severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if untreated. It is spread through contaminated water and has a short incubation period, which leads to rapid outbreaks.

Government teams fanned out across the hard-hit southwestern tip of the country over the weekend to repair treatment centres and reach the epicentre of one outbreak.

Survivors persevere

Despite the loss, survivors packed what remained of the city's churches on Sunday, many seated in pews under open sky because Matthew ripped away roofs and even walls of the sanctuaries.

At least one was so badly damaged that worshippers set up an altar and prayed outside.

Jameson Pierre, 22, saw at least one bright side of the devastation.

"There will be lots and lots of jobs since so many homes were knocked down. I've been working for the last three days straight," he said.

The first three of five cargo planes of humanitarian aid from the United States have arrived at the airport in the capital Port of Prince.

They were carrying 480 metric tons of relief supplies, including 20,000 hygiene kits, 18,000 sets of kitchen utensils for cooking, 40,000 blankets and 500 rolls of plastic sheeting.

AP/Reuters

Topics: storm-disaster, poverty, weather, cyclone, disasters-and-accidents, cyclones, haiti </s> PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti (AP) - The death toll from a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit near northern Haiti has increased to 17.

Officials say nine people died in the north coastal city of Port-de-Paix, seven in Gros Morne and one in Saint-Louis de Nord.

The government said late Monday that another 333 people were injured and that at least 7,783 families are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Saturday's quake also destroyed four schools and damaged thousands of homes.

A magnitude 5.2 aftershock hit Haiti on Sunday, prompting thousands of people to sleep outdoors for fear of their safety.

Officials in Haiti have struggled to shore up buildings due to the two major fault lines along Hispaniola, which is the island shared with the Dominican Republic.

Lodanise Joseph sits with her 9-month-old granddaughter outside their home damaged in the quake that hit over the weekend in Port-de-Paix, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. The death toll from a 5.9 earthquake that hit Haiti over the weekend rose to at least 15 people with hundreds injured, according to updated figures released Monday by authorities, as rescue crews worked to help victims spooked by strong aftershocks. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) </s> Haiti started burying some of its dead in mass graves in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, a government official said on Sunday, as cholera spread in the devastated southwest and the death toll from the storm rose to 1,000 people.

The powerful hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, slammed into Haiti on Tuesday, whipping it with 145 mph (233 kph) winds and torrential rains.

A Reuters tally of numbers from local officials showed that 1,000 people were killed by the storm in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas.

The official death toll from the central civil protection agency is 336, a slower count because officials must visit each village to confirm the numbers.

Authorities had to start burying the dead in mass graves in Jeremie as the bodies were starting to decompose, Kedner Frenel, the most senior central government official in the Grand’Anse region on Haiti’s western peninsula.

Frenel said 522 people died in Grand’Anse alone. A tally of death reported by mayors from 15 of 18 municipalities in Sud Department on the south side of the peninsula showed 386 people there. In the rest of the country, 92 people died, the same tally showed.

Frenel said there was great concern about the cholera spreading, and that authorities were focused on getting water, food and medication to the thousands of people living in shelters.

Cholera causes severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if untreated. It is spread through contaminated water and has a short incubation period, which leads to rapid outbreaks.

Government teams fanned out across the hard-hit southwestern tip of the country over the weekend to repair treatment centers and reach the epicenter of one outbreak.

A small airstrip at the edge of town meanwhile hums with activity. Aid convoys are arriving from the capital, now that some roads washed out by Hurricane Matthew have been cleared. A barge carrying food and water is moored offshore.

An international response is finally getting underway as Haitian authorities try to gauge the full extent of the staggering blow delivered by Hurricane Matthew, including hundreds dead and tens of thousands of homes obliterated.

The precise death toll remained uncertain Sunday. Guillaume Silvera, a senior official with the Civil Protection Agency in the storm-blasted Grand-Anse Department, which includes Jeremie, said at least 522 deaths were confirmed there alone — not including people in several remote communities still cut off by collapsed roads and bridges.

National Civil Protection headquarters in Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, said Saturday its official count for the whole country was 336, which included 191 deaths in Grand-Anse.

Haiti began three days of formal national mourning on Sunday under a decree issued by President Jocelerme Privert, even as aid began to move toward flattened communities.

“It’s beginning to pick up now,” said Stephane Rolland, a regional coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross, as workers unloaded blankets, soap, bleach and other critical items in Jeremie on Saturday.

The first two cargo planes of humanitarian aid from the United States arrived on Saturday at the Toussaint Louverture airport in the capital Port of Prince. U.S. Ambassador Peter Mulrean said that three other planes are expected to arrive in the next few days with a total amount of 480 metric tons of humanitarian supplies.

There are clearly limits, though, including the fact that the airstrip in Jeremie is unable to accommodate large cargo planes, and only operates in the daytime.

Many of the villages in the southwestern peninsula are difficult to reach. And people are growing increasingly desperate after losing everything when the storm ripped through the area on Tuesday.

Dony St. Germain, an official with El Shaddai Ministries International, said young men in villages off the road between the southern city of Les Cayes and Jeremie were starting to put up blockades of rocks and broken branches to halt the convoys.

“They are seeing these convoys coming through with supplies and they aren’t stopping. They are hungry and thirsty and some are getting angry,” said St. Germain.

Government officials estimate that at least 350,000 people need assistance, and concern was growing over an increase in cholera cases following widespread flooding unleashed by Matthew. An ongoing cholera outbreak has already killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010, when the infectious disease was introduced into the country’s biggest river from a U.N. base where Nepalese peacekeepers were deployed.

Maria Sofia Sanon, a health worker overseeing the open-air cholera treatment center in a corner of Jeremie’s main hospital, said they were ill-equipped to deal with patients. The area was strewn with broken tree branches, and a group of young mothers sat outside holding up the arms of their glassy-eyed children being rehydrated via IVs.

“They’re not supposed to be in the sun, but we have no more beds,” Sanon said.

The World Food Program says there has been massive destruction of crops. Hospitals and clinics have been damaged or destroyed as they struggle to deal with an increase in patients with injuries sustained during the storm as well as an apparent increase in cholera. UNICEF said that in Grand Anse alone there were 66,000 houses destroyed and 20,000 heavily damaged.

“Information gathered from various sources in the field suggests that the human toll (dead and injured) will be heavier than the current official figures,” the agency said in a report.

Jocelyne Saint Preux was part of the crowd that lined up in an orderly fashion to get food as aid began to arrive, including shipments of food and other emergency supplies from the U.S. Agency for International Development carried by waves of military transport helicopters.

The mother of three children whose home was destroyed said officials were handing out wheat, beans, oil and salt.

“Yes, they brought food, but it’s not sufficient,” she said. “There’s no water. There’s no charcoal.”

As aid trickled into Jeremie, Jislene Jean-Baptiste surveyed what remained of the one-room house that the grandmother shares with her three daughters and their children. There wasn’t much left. Storm surge flowed across the road and drenched her belongings in waist-deep salt water, washing away the stores of rice and sugar she regularly sold at the market to support her family. Then the wind tore off her roof.

“That storm was the most terrifying thing that ever happened here,” she said.

Haiti faces a growing cholera outbreak that threatens to turn its disaster even more deadly.

In Port Salut, a smashed-up town on Haiti’s southern peninsula that was among those that bore the brunt of Hurricane Matthew, fears are rising.

The town’s sole hospital on Sunday recorded its first death from the disease, a man of undisclosed age.

Another nine patients brought in within the past two days are being treated for the illness, which is caught from contaminated water.

Other cholera deaths have been reported in different parts of southern Haiti.

The outbreak is especially alarming for this destitute tropical nation. In the wake of a catastrophic earthquake in 2010, cholera was inadvertently introduced by U.N. peacekeepers and went on to kill around 10,000 people.

Civil defense officials have put the death toll from the hurricane itself at 336, although some officials said it topped 400.

Dr. Stevenson Desravines, the director of the Port Salut hospital, told AFP that cholera was rapidly becoming a “fatal danger” for the town and surrounding area.

“It’s something that is starting,” he said, adding that his facility lacked personnel, medicine and equipment to tackle that and other health problems.

“Since the storm, we are receiving around 100 patients a day, with 85 percent from storm-related injuries,” mainly broken bones, bleeding and concussions from falling trees, roofs and other objects, he said.

The remainder had other, regular illnesses such as asthma and high blood pressure.

Before the cholera death, the hospital had registered three patients deceased from their injuries sustained last Tuesday when the storm struck with tremendous fury.

The hospital, standing intact on a street of destroyed and damaged houses and fallen trees, has a staff of 55 — a third of them Cuban, who are operating under a years-old cooperation agreement.

One of the Cuban personnel, who declined to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media, said storm-related injuries were currently the health priority for his team.

There were very few cholera cases right now, relatively, he said.

But after he spoke the cholera death occurred in the hospital, galvanizing staff and focusing attention on the new threat.

AFP journalists saw the covered body of the deceased patient in a hospital room, and Desravines confirmed the death was from the disease.

Outside, sheltering in the shade from the bright sun, another cholera-afflicted patient, a weak-looking woman, received fluid intravenously.

Inside and outside the hospital, used soda bottles filled with diluted chlorine hung from handrails, encouraging staff, patients and visitors to regularly disinfect their hands to avoid catching the disease.

A sign pointed those with suspected cholera to use a separate entrance.

Desravines said that so far he had received no help from the United Nations or other aid organizations in the country.

“We are waiting for more personnel, more supplies, including intravenous bags, medicines and cleaning products,” he said. </s> The central government’s official death toll stood at nearly 300, but authorities doing the on-ground assessment in remote corners of the southwestern peninsula said it would likely be significantly higher when the full accounting was complete.

Saint-Victor Jeune, an official with the Civil Protection agency working in Beaumont, in the mountains on the outskirts of hard-hit Jeremie, said his team found 82 bodies that had not been recorded by authorities in the capital because of spotty communications. Most appeared to have died from falling debris from the winds that tore through the area at 145 mph on Tuesday.

“We don’t have any contact with Port-au-Prince yet and there are places we still haven’t reached,” Jeune said, as he and a team of Civil Protection agents in orange vests combed through the area.

As Haitians mourned their losses, they tried to recover what they could of their meager possessions. Homes throughout the area were piles of rubble, the roofs mangled or stripped away.

Telemaque Dieuseal, 54-year-old farmer, fled his small house to stay with a cousin but returned to find that his TV, motorcycle and radio were nowhere to be found among the wreckage.

“The thieves were out all day after the storm stealing everything they could get,” Dieuseal said. “It’s going to take a long time to get back on my feet.”

Workers from the International Organization of Migration and other groups were going through the area to assess the damage and provide assistance, though their efforts were hampered by damaged roads, rough terrain and other factors.

“Devastation is everywhere,” said Pilus Enor, mayor of Camp Perrin, a town near the port city of Les Cayes on the peninsula’s south shore. “Every house has lost its roof.”

Officials were especially concerned about the department of Grand-Anse on the northern tip of the peninsula, where they believe the death toll and damage is highest. The 283 deaths reported by Pierre did not include Grand-Anse or its surrounding areas.

When Category 4 Hurricane Flora hit Haiti in 1963, it killed as many as 8,000 people.

More bodies began to appear Thursday as waters receded in some places two days after Matthew’s 145 mph winds smashed concrete walls, flattened palm trees and tore roofs off homes, forcing thousands of Haitians to flee.

Those killed in Haiti included a woman and her 6-year-old daughter who frantically abandoned their flimsy home and headed to a nearby church to seek shelter as Matthew surged in early Tuesday, said Ernst Ais, mayor of the town of Cavaillon.

“On the way to the church, the wind took them,” Ais said.

Officials said that food and water were urgently needed, noting that crops had been leveled, wells inundated by seawater and some water treatment facilities destroyed.

In Les Cayes, many people searched for clean water as they lugged mattresses and other belongings they were able to salvage.

“Nothing is going well,” said Jardine Laguerre, a teacher. “The water took what little money we had. We are hungry.”

Officials with the Pan American Health Organization warned about a possible surge in cholera cases because of the widespread flooding caused by Matthew. Haiti’s cholera outbreak has killed roughly 10,000 people and sickened more than 800,000 since 2010, when it was introduced into the country’s biggest river from a U.N. base where Nepalese peacekeepers were deployed.

Haiti’s government has estimated at least 350,000 people need some kind of assistance in what is likely to be the country’s worst humanitarian crisis since the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

International aid groups are already appealing for donations for a lengthy recovery effort in Haiti, the hemisphere’s least-developed and most aid-dependent nation.

In the coming days, the U.S. military expects to help deliver food and water to hard-hit areas via helicopter.

After passing over Haiti, Matthew hit Cuba’s lightly populated eastern tip Tuesday night, damaging hundreds of homes in the easternmost city of Baracoa but there were no reports of deaths. Nearly 380,000 people were evacuated and measures were taken to protect infrastructure.

Matthew advanced up the length of the Bahamas on Wednesday and Thursday, tearing roofs away, toppling trees and causing flooding that trapped some people in their homes. There had been no reports of casualties by late Thursday as the storm headed toward Florida’s coast.

Before hitting Haiti, the storm was blamed for four deaths in the Dominican Republic, one in Colombia and one in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. </s> PORT-AU-PRINCE: The death toll from the earthquake that struck northwest Haiti over the weekend has risen to 17, with nearly 350 others injured, the interior ministry said on Tuesday (Oct 9).

Nine people were killed in the coastal city of Port-de-Paix, the closest major town to the quake's epicentre.

Seven more died in Gros-Morne, about 50 kilometres to the southeast and one was killed in the city of Saint-Louis du Nord, the ministry said.

Emergency personnel deployed to the quake zone have said roughly 7,800 homes were either destroyed or damaged in the 5.9-magnitude tremor, according to the authorities.

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, building codes are often not respected, meaning that an earthquake of even a moderate size can result in fatalities and level buildings.

The country's Nord-Ouest department, where Port-de-Paix is located, is the worst-off part of Haiti, with many areas isolated due to the dire state of the roads.

The quake and several aftershocks were felt as far away as the capital Port-au-Prince, sparking fear among residents still reeling from the massive 2010 earthquake that left at least 200,000 people dead.
The death toll is at least 140 people with 136 in Haiti.