Hurricane's death toll tops 1,500 in Haiti

The death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne shot up to an estimated 1,500 Saturday, with hundreds of Haitians still missing as a thunderstorm drenched the homeless who are living on rooftops and sidewalks.

U.N. peacekeepers said they were sending reinforcements to help keep order among desperate survivors who have been looting aid trucks and mobbing food distribution centers.

Yet another tragedy struck at a center in Gonaives when a 13-year-old boy was killed by an aid truck as crowds of hungry flood victims pressed up against the gates of the warehouse, said Roseline Corvil, an official of the aid agency CARE International. The boy was hit as the driver attempted leave. "I presume that he did not see the child," she said.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue estimated more than 1,500 dead, said Paul Magloire, an adviser. Some 300,000 are homeless, most in the northwestern city of Gonaives.

Hundreds remain missing but the government hasn't released a new estimate. Earlier Saturday, officials said 1,200 were unaccounted for, but many of them were likely in Latortue's revised death toll.

Magloire said officials were drawing up plans to temporarily move thousands of flood victims into tents to allow a cleanup of neighborhoods coated with contaminated sludge and debris.

A U.N. humanitarian relief coordinator, Eric Mouillesarine, said people were mobbing relief workers and "there's nothing we can do."

Direct hit on Abaco island

Meanwhile, Hurricane Jeanne lashed the northern Bahamas with fierce winds and torrential rains Saturday, shredding roofs and flooding neighborhoods in the country's second largest city before raging on toward Florida as a reinvigorated and dangerous Category 3 storm.

Jeanne's eye made a direct hit on Abaco island and then Grand Bahama island, whirling along its north coast near the city of Freeport while thousands of people took refuge in shelters and homes with windows boarded shut against 115 mph winds in the sixth major hurricane of the season.

"We have been inundated with reports of roofs blowing off and have been rescuing people from homes that are flooded or destroyed," said Alexander E. Williams, the chief emergency official on Grand Bahama island.

There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries, though Freeport police said they used a tractor to rescue two power company officials whose truck was swamped by floodwaters.