AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Sep. 26, SPA-- The death toll in disastrous flooding in Haiti has risen to some 1,650, with about 800 people still missing, a government official said on Sunday. Hurricane Jeanne, which hurtled ashore on Florida's east coast on Saturday, lashed Haiti with torrential rains as a tropical storm a week ago. Flood waters and mud cascaded into the northern city of Gonaives and other parts of the north and northwest, leaving tens of thousands of people with nothing in the poorest country in the Americas. Carl Murat Cantave, a Haitian government official, said the toll was now 1,650. The toll could rise well above 2,000 as more bodies are recovered from Gonaives, a port city of 200,000, and outlying areas. Efforts to distribute food, water and other relief supplies have been hampered by security problems and on Saturday a convoy of government trucks bringing aid was attacked by gunmen and people with machetes as it entered the city, officials said. There have been several incidents of attacks by gangs in the city, as well as scuffles among people desperate for food and water. Street gangs rule many of Haiti's squalid slums, and helped lead a bloody revolt that forced former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee into exile on Feb. 29. --More 2343 Local Time 2043 GMT
