PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Four tropical storms have wiped out most of Haiti's food crops and damaged irrigation systems and pumping stations, raising the specter of acute hunger for millions in the impoverished country.
"The system of agriculture has been destroyed," Agriculture Minister Joanas Gue told The Associated Press. Aid agencies and diplomats also say Haiti desperately needs help to avert mass hunger.
Emergency aid has flowed in to people directly affected by Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, storms that triggered flooding and killed at least 425 people in less than a month, including 194 in the critical rice-growing Artibonite Valley.
However, a United Nations fundraising appeal has raised less than 2 percent of a critical $108 million, said Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the world body's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
An additional $18 million has been pledged but not delivered.
Much, much more is needed, with farms damaged or destroyed across the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
"This will take billions of dollars. This is not something small," U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Henrietta Fore told AP.
Schools that were supposed to open in early September are still filled with refugees fighting over scraps of food aid. Much of Gonaives, the nation's fourth-largest city, remains flooded and without electricity.
Malaria and other diseases are beginning to spread.
"The scope of this is, frankly, unimaginable in many countries," said U.S. Ambassador Janet Sanderson. "A lot of the progress of the last couple of years has been swept away by these waters."
The U.S. government is sending $29 million in food aid and humanitarian assistance.
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