1,070+ Dead From Hatian Flooding, Landslides; 1,250 Still Missing

[hatrack]

GONAIVES, Haiti — "Trucks dumped scores of bodies into a mass grave in this flood-ravaged city still littered with corpses, as officials said the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to more than 1,070 and could double again.

There was no funeral ceremony when the bodies were dumped into a 14-foot-deep hole at sunset Wednesday. Dozens of bystanders shrieked, held their noses against the stench and demanded officials collect bodies in nearby waterlogged fields.

The confirmed death toll rose to 1,072, with 1,013 bodies recovered in Gonaives alone, according to Dieufort Deslorges, spokesman for the government's civil protection agency. He said the number of people missing in the floods rose to 1,250.

Only a couple dozen bodies have been identified, and nobody was taking count at the site of the mass grave. "We're demanding they come and take the bodies from our fields. Dogs are eating them," said bystander Jean Lebrun, listing demands made by residents of in the neighborhood whose opposition to mass graves had delayed burials. "We can only drink the water people died in," the 35-year-old farmer said, citing a lack of potable water in this city of 250,000, with parts still knee-deep in water five days after the storm's passage."

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