UN humanitarian team taking aid to area of flooded Haiti

A team of United Nations humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) today will carry aid to one of the areas of Haiti worst affected by the raging floods that followed days of torrential rain, killing nearly 400 people and injuring almost 1,000 in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

With many roads still impassable, the team was taking a helicopter owned by the US-led Multinational Interim Force (MIF) to Haiti's Fond Verette, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

Other areas devastated by the sudden flooding Monday night were Mapou, Grand Gosier and Anse à Pitre, in the western part of Haiti, while in the Dominican Republic, Jimani municipality in the southwest, near the Haitian border, was the worst affected.

OCHA said latest reports indicate that in Haiti, almost 350 people are dead or missing, while over 800 have been injured. In Jimani, 45 people were killed, 120 injured and 200 are missing. Some 7,000 Haitians urgently need aid.

Haiti suffered the loss of 2,400 houses and five schools destroyed or badly damaged by the floods. Crops and livestock were also lost. MIF peacekeepers, who have ferried supplies in by helicopter, were appealing for tents, blankets, plastic sheeting and food for those in need.