Hurricane Jeanne targets Bahamas and Florida

A revitalised Hurricane Jeanne was tonight on a path for the Bahamas and then on to the Atlantic coast of Florida, a state still reeling from three earlier storms.

Bahamians strapped plastic sheeting over holes in their roofs left by Hurricane Frances and prepared to face Jeanne, which made an elaborate loop out in the Atlantic and turned its sights on the chain of islands it threatened just last week.

The Bahamian capital, Nassau, on Providence Island, and the second city of Freeport, on Grand Bahama island, both are in the threatened zone.

Frances killed two people and damaged thousands of homes when it tore through the Bahamas three weeks ago. Particularly hard-hit was Freeport, where some with heavily damaged homes still are living with relatives or neighbours.

Emergency shelters were being prepared in schools and churches, and officials planned to discuss possible evacuations.

Jeanne could drop up to 10 inches of rain along its path, the US weather service said, and fears of more flooding, flying debris and power failures sent Floridians scurrying to grocery and hardware stores for supplies that had run low before the last storms.

State and federal officials geared up for another disaster response.

“I know people are frustrated, they’re tired of all this,” Governor Jeb Bush said . “Trust me, their governor is as well.”

A hurricane watch was issued for most of the state’s eastern coast, from Florida City to St Augustine.

Jeanne could hit just over a week after Hurricane Ivan thrashed the Florida Panhandle. Ivan and the two previous storms, Charley and Frances, caused billions of dollars of damage and were blamed for at least 70 deaths in the state.

The only other time four hurricanes have been known to hit the same state in one season was in Texas in 1886,

In Haiti, survivors traumatised by the ongoing toll from Jeanne, which has claimed more than 1,100 lives and left tens of thousands hungry and thirsty, are burying unclaimed corpses in mud-clogged backyards and attacking aid trucks and even neighbours bringing food.

Many were losing patience at the slow pace of relief to the horror.

People were defecating on streets still knee-deep in contaminated mud that was slowly caking over bodies, animal carcasses and debris including pieces of torn-off zinc roofs that are slashing into barefooted survivors.

Limes have become a hot item in the devastated city of Gonaives because people hold them to their noses to relieve the stench.

Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman for the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti, put the missing at 1,251. He said the United Nations count was 1,113 bodies recovered and 297,926 people homeless in Haiti’s north-west province - with the vast majority of victims in Gonaives, a city of 250,000.

Haiti, a country of eight million people, has suffered 30 coups.