Haiti In "Total Desperation" After Storm - Washington Post

GONAIVES, Haiti, Sept. 26 -- Louisen Louis, 30, walked Monday in the middle of a street that resembled a small river with brown rivulets and waves. He wore sandals and had a cut on one of his big toes.

As he searched for drinking water, holding an empty water jug on his head, Louis described the torrent of mud that descended upon the city 10 days ago, destroying buildings and burying people in its path. The flooding was a result of Tropical Storm Jeanne, which swept across Haiti on Sept. 18, heading west toward the United States.

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"The whole sewage system in Gonaives collapsed," said Ricardo Mena, head of the U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination team in Gonaives. "Water is still in the streets, getting very, very contaminated. The possibility of spreading disease is very high. The fear of triggering epidemics like malaria is high."

Jean-Claude Mubalama, health and nutrition officer for UNICEF, toured 14 shelters crowded with 8,800 homeless people. "There is no sanitation," Mubalama said. "There are lots of chances for infection. People don't have any food. Also kids are sick with fever and diarrhea. I have never seen a disaster like this." Attacks by armed gangs in the city have slowed efforts to distribute food and water, officials said. Men carrying guns and people with machetes have ambushed government trucks carrying food."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55282-2004Sep27.html

Us, the UN, anyone?

overthrew the government in collaboration with criminals, destroyed the infrastructure and left it in much worse shape to handle this tragedy.