"We can't live in this situation, " said Baptiste Jean, 28. "We don't have a country. We don't have a president. The city is finished."

"We didn't just lose our house. The house was eliminated, " Phillipe Joseph, 38, added. "The entire family -- mother, father, sister, child -- is homeless. But thank God, they are here."

He called on the government to do more. "It has a lot of work to do because after Jeanne, nothing was done. Just government waste. I would hope after this one they would take their responsibility and make sure the money and aid get to the poor people, " he said.

Tropical Storm Jeanne, which also unleashed a wall of water on Gonaives, was blamed for more than 3,000 deaths in Haiti in 2004.

HARSH SURVIVAL

In the days since Hanna, tens of thousands have gone to shelters -- at least 48,000 from Gonaives and the surrounding area. But more, fearing looters, continue to sleep on roofs where they can keep a close eye on what's left of their homes.

Others have simply taken to walking the streets, begging for everything from food to clothes, and sleeping where they can. Still others have headed for the barren mountains, where they plan to wait out the next two storms -- Ike and Josephine.

"I have nowhere to sleep, " said Marie-Josette Moise, 41, a mother of seven, who scrambled onto a rooftop, climbing six flights of stairs in the middle of the storm.

Some were scared.

"We are already dead, " said Mackento Jacques, 13, when asked about Ike, which could affect Haiti this weekend. "There is nothing we can do."

Cassandre Loisy, 23, has not seen her 3-year-old daughter Cassandrley since she was forced to send the girl to stay with a neighbor when Hanna began to blow through. On Thursday, the living room of their green and white house was knee-deep in mud. Sewage seeped through the front door.

"We didn't think the rains were going to come like that, " she said. "We were so confused, we only had enough time to grab our passports and run."

To escape crashing flood waters, Loisy and other family members, including her 54-year-old mother, first scaled their front balcony, and then a seven-foot wall guarding their front door.

A nursing student, she said her entire tuition was swallowed by the storm. Four years ago during Tropical Storm Jeanne, the family suffered an even greater loss: Her 5-year-old nephew Richkaard Pierre was killed.

Richkaard's mother, Raymond Mulatre, said Hanna will not be soon forgotten.

"I don't know what we are going to do, " she said. "We don't have money, we don't have anywhere to go."