The United Nations on Friday asked wealthy nations to donate an extra $59 million in aid to help about 400,000 people in Grenada and Haiti recover from a recent wave of storms and flooding. "These programs will help meet urgent needs like shelter, food and clean water, and also for longer term reconstruction of schools and infrastructure as well as laying foundations for economic recovery," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said. Haiti requires $32 million to meet urgent needs, while Grenada seeks $27 million, the world body estimated. Governments, U.N. agencies and private relief groups are already rushing food, water and other emergency supplies to the region following a month of storms, but the new appeal is intended to address anticipated needs over the next six months, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. Hurricane Ivan and Tropical Storm Jeanne killed more than 1,500 people in Haiti and affected another 300,000 people there, the statement said. Local officials have estimated that as many as 2,400 people have died during flooding in Haiti, where aid workers are still struggling to feed unruly crowds of hungry people. In Grenada, the storms touched all of the island's 100,000 inhabitants, where Hurricane Ivan damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the three-island nation's houses and wiped out nearly all its crops, the United Nations said.
