PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - At least 50 people lost their lives and 150 are missing in Haiti after tropical storm Jeanne swept across the island of Hispaniola, a UN spokesman revealed.
That death toll is likely to rise, according to Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, spokesman for United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Eighty percent of the city of Gonaives, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of the Haitian capital, is flooded, he said Monday.
A government delegation led by Prime Minister Gerard Latortue earlier gave a toll of 30 dead after returning from a tour of severely flooded areas in the north of the impoverished country.
The United Nations, which made 12 helicopter flights over Gonaives Sunday, will transport water and medicine to the region Monday. The World Food Program will ship food by truck, Kongo-Doudou said.
Authorities will also tour Port de Paix in northwestern Haiti, which is also innundated.
The hospital and police station are among the buildings flooded in Gonaives, which in many places is under three meters (10 feet) of water, the UN spokesman told AFP.
Two medical teams from Argentina and a team from Doctors without Borders will also depart Port au Prince for northern Haiti tomorrow.
In the Dominican Republic -- Haiti and the Dominican Republic share Hispaniola island -- at least seven deaths were blamed on Jeanne. President Leonel Fernandez visited the hardest-hit eastern part of the country on Saturday.
Jeanne moved north of the Bahamas Sunday and was expected to stay out to sea for the next few days.