Death and despair in flood-hit Haitian city

BODIES lay in growing piles outside mortuaries yesterday as United Nations peacekeepers planned the first major distribution of food and water in Haiti.

The country has been devastated by floods that tore apart families and left hungry crowds that have mobbed truckloads of aid.

The death toll from deluges unleashed by Tropical Storm Jeanne climbed to more than 700, Haitian officials said, with more than 600 of them in Gonaives alone. More than 1,000 others were declared missing.