The death toll from Hurricane Dennis rose dramatically on Tuesday with at least 40 reported dead in Haiti, 16 in Cuba and more bodies expected to be found.
Dennis lashed Haiti last Thursday and went on to sweep across Cuba. On Sunday, the storm hit the southern United States, where another five people were killed. One man was also killed in Jamaica.
The degree of destruction in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, only became known on Tuesday when the civil protection agency said 40 people have now been confirmed dead with at least 16 missing after the storm.
Dennis was the first hurricane of the season in the Atlantic, but brought immediate devastation.
Haitian civil protection agency spokesperson Jeffe Delorges said 23 bodies have been found in the south-western town of Grand-Goave. Most were killed when a bridge collapsed.
Another 10 were killed in the Grande-Anse region, also in the south-west; five in the south-east; and two in the southern city of Cayes.
The agency estimates about 15 000 people are without homes or means to feed themselves, with hundreds of houses completely destroyed. It said there has been widespread flooding and damage to plantations.
The Caribbean braced for more stormy weather as a tropical depression that could become a hurricane moved over the Atlantic toward Martinique.
Cuba’s President Fidel Castro said in a televised address late on Monday that the toll from Dennis in the island has climbed to 16 from 11.
”We have to talk about the saddest of things,” Castro said in his six-hour speech. ”A total of 16 people were killed.”
Castro also said that Dennis, which hammered Cuba on Thursday and Friday with winds of up to 240kph, destroyed or damaged 120 000 homes and caused more than $1,4-billion in damage.
Castro also read from a lengthy list of agricultural devastation: ”The entire crop of citrus fruits was lost — 200 000 tonnes of grapefruit fell from the trees, as did 160 000 tonnes of oranges. At hundreds of dollars per tonne, that’s a huge loss for our exports.”
Castro turned down all help offered to Cuba in the wake of Hurricane Dennis by the US or the European Union.
”Because of this terrible hurricane, there are some who have mentioned humanitarian assistance,” Castro said.
”There’s a neighbour who offered a little help, I think it was $50 000 … Let them know that we’ll never accept help. If they offered us one billion [dollars], we’d tell them no.
”Let them lift instead this genocidal blockade against our country,” Castro said, referring to the US economic embargo imposed on Cuba more than 40 years ago after Castro imposed a communist government on the island.
Regarding the EU, Castro said: ”Let me warn the Europeans ahead of time that we will not accept any humanitarian assistance.
”Let them save their money. Don’t anybody offer anything, the whole of Europe. We’ll tell you flat out ‘no’,” Castro said, renewing his criticism of European sanctions imposed after a crackdown on dissidents in 2003.
Storm-weary residents of the US Gulf of Mexico coast pursued their clear-up after their latest battering.
Thousands of people who had evacuated the area returned to gas shortages, rotting food, sweltering heat and badly damaged buildings.
Trees, fallen branches and chunks of roofing and signage littered the streets and authorities said it would be days — or even weeks — until power was fully restored.
Caravans of police and national guardsmen escorted utility trucks through the most damaged areas, while otherwise quiet suburbs buzzed with the sounds of chainsaws and gas-powered generators.
Long lines formed at the few hardware stores that had managed to reopen and many had to drive kilometres for food, ice and gasoline.
Dennis is estimated to have caused $1-billion to $5-billion in insured losses in the US, according to Risk Management Solutions. — Sapa-AFP