PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Disaster relief crews battled Tuesday to get emergency aid to 170,000 people affected by floods that killed more than 700 in Haiti, a Caribbean nation that ranks among the world's poorest. As emergency operations gathered pace, officials feared the death toll would rise further as rescue teams get to areas that remain cut off by mud or water, or as they sift through the rubble left after Tropical Storm Jeanne pummeled Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic on Sunday. Alone in the northern town of Gonaives, about 600 bodies were recovered, while 60 deaths were confirmed in Port de Paix and a further 49 in surrounding areas. "Bodies keep being brought in," said Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, the spokesman for the UN Stabilization Mission for Haiti. "I'm afraid those figures are going to increase, as there are areas that still remain inaccessible," said Hans Havic of the International Federation of Red Cross Societies. "There are a lot of villages we haven't been able to get to, and I'm afraid we may have bad surprises in days and weeks to come," he told AFP. Officials pointed out more bodies were washed out to sea, some showing up on the Tortue island, which was relatively unharmed despite earlier fears it had been completely submerged. Red Cross workers were busy collecting and disinfecting bodies in Gonaives, where officials set up an improvised morgue on the university campus. An official in Gonaives, told AFP by telephone of appalling conditions at the main mortuary, where many bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition. In addition to the fatalities, hundreds of people were wounded, many by falling roofs. "In just one hour we registered 300 people being treated," said Havic. Foreign ministry official Luc Saint-Fleur told a local radio station how five relatives were killed in Gonaives, including his father and a sister. He said his mother was saved after being carried away by a torrent. About 170,000 people were without food, water or electricity after the ferocious storm that left many without homes in Haiti, the western hemisphere's poorest country that has been further impoverished by deadly floods in May as well as civil strife. Compounding the problems is the lack of security in the area, where many police officers deserted their posts and where crime has risen since then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the country in February, despite the deployment of nearly 3,000 UN peacekeepers. Aid officials say it will take months and vast amounts of aid before a semblance of normalcy can be restored to the affected areas. "It is a tragic situation ... hitting a population that is already very vulnerable and very affected," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "A very serious factor is that the affected region harvests the most agricultural products (in Haiti)," she told a news conference in Geneva. The first 12 trucks of the World Food Programme (WFP) headed to the affected areas Tuesday, carrying water, food and medicine. "We had to send ready-to-eat food because people have nothing left to cook with," said Guy Gauvreau, the WFP's official in Haiti. The French government sent a first planeload of emergency supplies, while the US embassy pledged an initial 60,000 dollars in aid pending an assessment of the country's needs. In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, authorities said the storm killed 23 people. There were also nine dead in the Bahamas and two in Puerto Rico. Jeanne was just the latest in a string of powerful, deadly storms to slam the Americas this year. Hurricane Ivan, responsible for more than 130 deaths in the United States and the Caribbean, finally petered out over the weekend, but countries in the region were still reeling from the destruction left in its wake. Thousands of homes were flattened by the third major storm, after Hurricanes Charley and Frances, to hit the southern United States in six weeks. Insurance experts have estimated the cost at up to 10 billion dollars, making it one of the most expensive hurricanes in US history. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com