Stores were shuttered, gas stations closed and Carnival bandstands stood unfinished Saturday as Haiti mourned the hundreds who died in a ferry disaster.
Government television broadcast condolences from Haitian officials and Pope John Paul II. Announcers read lists of about 300 survivors from the ferry Neptune, which capsized during a storm Tuesday night en route from Haiti's southern peninsula to the capital.About 1,000 people were crammed aboard the ferry on its 120-mile trip from Jeremie to Port-au-Prince. The exact count remains unclear, although the ship's agent had precise figures for the amount of livestock, poultry and other goods.
The confirmed death toll rose to 275 on Saturday. Hundreds more who had been aboard the 163-foot-long vessel remained unaccounted for.
Critics have complained that the poor condition of the main highway along the southern peninsula forces people to travel by ferry and that the government has failed to enforce maritime regulations.
Following the disaster, the government promised to build a new highway and asked ship owners to follow regulations.
On Saturday afternoon, Haiti's state-run TV station showed a documentary on mysterious disappearances of aircraft and sea vessels in the Bermuda Triangle. But on closed caption, the station also displayed condolence messages for victims of the Neptune tragedy.
At Port-au-Prince's central plaza, builders and painters stopped working on Carnival bandstands as pre-Lenten celebrations were halted Saturday as part of a day of mourning declared by the government. The three-day Carnival begins Sunday.
Just off the plaza, hundreds of people waited for authorities at the city morgue to release the bodies of relatives who died in the disaster.
The U.S. Coast Guard has been helping search for bodies. Five cutters found no survivors, but fished 170 bodies from the sea. The Haitian navy picked up 13 more bodies.
The tally Saturday also included 42 bodies washed ashore a day earlier near Leogane, 25 miles west of the capital. Also counted were 50 bodies just off Petit Gouve that were spotted by U.S. aircraft.