Hurricane death toll at 38, 26 of them in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE: The death toll from Hurricane Sandy rose to 38 on Friday, after officials in Haiti reported that the number of fatalities in the impoverished Caribbean country had increased to 26.

The storm -- which is now headed for the US East Coast -- also killed 11 people in Cuba and one in Jamaica as it pummeled the Caribbean as a category two hurricane.

Most of the dead in Haiti were killed trying to cross swollen rivers.

In the west of the country, a family of five was killed when their home in the city of Grand-Goave, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Port-au-Prince, collapsed in a landslide.

Four more people are still reported missing in Haiti, civil defense officials said, warning that the tally was still partial, as downed communications lines made it difficult to get information from isolated areas.

More than 17,000 Haitians were displaced by the storm, and thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged from the storm, which continued to dump rain on the country.

Several towns were flooded and crops were destroyed. Roads were also damaged, leaving several regions cut off from the rest of the country.

On Friday, the government declared a public holiday to deal with the consequences of the storm.(AFP)