Port-Au-Prince - Haitian police found 495 corpses when muddy floodwaters began to recede on Friday from the port city of Gonaives following days of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hanna, the town's police commissioner said on Friday.

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©REUTERS/Marco Dormino/Minustah/Handout
An aerial view of floods caused by Tropical Storm Hanna is seen in Gonaives in this September 3, 2008 file photo. Haitian police found 495 corpses when muddy floodwaters began to recede on Friday from the port city of Gonaives.


"The weather is calm now and we are discovering more bodies. We have found 495 bodies so far and there are 13 people missing," commissioner Ernst Dorfeuille told Reuters.

"The smell of the dead is very unpleasant in Gonaives. The death toll could be even higher."