Gustav, Ike, Hanna, Fay in Haiti: 793 dead, 300+ missing

[Chacor]

This is horrendous. Wow.

Haiti storms left 793 people dead

Nearly 800 people in Haiti were killed in four major storms which devastated the country in August and September, officials have said.

More than 300 people were missing, the civil protection agency said.

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike and tropical storms Hanna and Fay killed 466 people in Gonaives, the hardest hit city.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is prone to flooding and mudslides after heavy rains, due to widespread deforestation.

The spokeswoman for Haiti's civil protection agency, Alta Jean-Baptiste, said 793 people were killed and 548 people injured in the four storms.

Last month, the UN's special envoy to Haiti said the country had been overwhelmed by the storms and needed more international help.

The envoy, Hedi Annabi, said the western city of Gonaives was all but destroyed and every house had been damaged or swamped by mud.

[HurricaneBill]

I think Hanna was the deadliest of the bunch.

Sadly, Gonaives is also the city that was hit hard by flooding from Hurricane Jeanne in 2004.

[CajunMama]

I tried find the words to reply to this earlier and couldn't. This just upsets me so much to see iso many nnocent people losing their lives like this.

[southerngale]

I know that a lot of people find hurricanes fascinating, but they are horrible monsters that kill people and devastate the lives of many others. May God comfort the families of those killed.

[somethingfunny]

Sadly, there are individuals (more than you'd think...some probably on this board....) who could match the entire international response to this quartet of horror.

I can't wrap my head around it. To live in a country where this kind of thing happens several times a decade and there's nothing you can do about it. So horrible.