Hurricane Dennis killed 40 in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, July 12 (UPI) -- Hurricane Dennis, which tore through the Caribbean before striking the U.S. mainland, killed at least 40 people in Haiti, local radio reported Tuesday.

Haitian officials said that an estimated 15,000 people were left homeless by the hurricane.

The western hemisphere's poorest nation has been hit hard by storms and subsequent flooding the last year and a half.

In September 2004, some 2,000 people died in after Haiti was ravaged by heavy rains and flooding. And in May of the same year, more than 3,000 people died in flooding in the south, near Haiti's shared border with the Dominican Republic.