More than a week after devastating floods hit northern Haiti the death count rose sharply as reports came in from remote areas on Monday and aid workers struggled to feed thousands of desperate people. 

The estimated toll from the floods triggered by Tropical Storm Jeanne climbed to about 2,400 after a parish priest reported "a total disaster" in small towns in Poteau, a region outside Gonaives.

In Gonaives, young men grabbed food from an aid convoy and others robbed women for bags of rice. Aid workers, backed by armed UN peacekeeping forces, increased the number of distribution points for emergency supplies to four but still faced tense crowds of destitute people clamoring for help.

Angry men complained about a policy of handing out food only to women, who traditionally care for the feeding of their households, and many women despaired of getting clean water for drinking and cooking, resorting to muddy wells.

"We don't know if the water is good, but we have to use it. If we don't cook anything my children are going to die," said Jacqueline Orassin, a 49-year-old with six children.

Torrential rain from Tropical Storm Jeanne engulfed much of the port city of 200,000 people last week. Government estimates put the death toll at 1,650, with about 800 missing.

But Toussaint Chery, who as parish priest is Poteau's top authority, said about 1,000 people had died in 18 rural communities in his region. At least 750 of those deaths had not been previously reported, taking the nationwide toll from Jeanne to about 2,400.

"I personally went to several of those communities. It's a total disaster," Chery said. "There are places that have been completely washed out."

Carl Murat Cantave, a government official in Gonaives, also said the official toll would rise. "Given the number of missing, when we declare the final death toll in the coming days, it will be at least 2,337 just for the Gonaives region," he said.

In Florida, people lined up for food and water, while others searched in vain for generators in the sweltering heat as Florida residents began cleaning up all over again, demoralized by the fourth hurricane in six weeks to batter the state.

Florida is the first state to get pounded by four hurricanes in one season since Texas in 1886. Two months remain in the 2004 hurricane season.

(China Daily September 29, 2004)