CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) -- Armed civilians loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stoked burning barricades and blocked roads to Haiti's second-largest city for a second day Wednesday, vowing to keep rebels from advancing and to stem a violent uprising that has killed at least 42.

Sporadic gunfire crackled over the northern port city of Cap-Haitien overnight in an apparent attempt to intimidate any rebels or their supporters.

Under cover of darkness, with the city blacked out because there was no fuel for generators, attackers looted a warehouse in the city, carrying away bags of rice, flour and other staples, witnesses said.

A police outpost in the remote northwest hamlet of Bassin Bleu was torched by gunmen Monday in a hit-and-run operation, Radio Vision 2000 reported. It said police had abandoned the town Sunday.

The uprising began Thursday in Haiti's fourth-largest city, Gonaives, presenting a dangerous turning point in a political crisis that began after flawed elections in 2000. A similar revolt in 1985 also started in Gonaives and led to the downfall of the 29-year Duvalier family dictatorship.

Most of Haiti returned to relative calm Tuesday, with Aristide supporters looking to the battle ahead. Opponents refuse to participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down.

"We're going to devour them," said Jean-Claude Joseph, 35, standing at a barricade with more than a dozen others at Cap-Haitien, a former Aristide stronghold whose support for the president has waned with deepening poverty.

The State Department authorized the departure of diplomats' families and non-emergency employees, even though most of Haiti was unaffected by the uprising. The U.S. government also issued a travel warning, though few tourists travel to Haiti.

Roadblocks had prevented food deliveries to tens of thousands in the north, the U.N. World Food Program warned from Geneva, and fuel tankers also were blocked. Some gas stations had already run out of fuel in Cap-Haitien, although the capital remained unaffected.

In some areas where gunbattles had died down, neither police nor rebels were present. In the northern town of Ennery, young men played soccer in front of its charred police station, abandoned days earlier. Businesses and schools were closed.

"Everything's paralyzed," said David Metelus, a 22-year-old mechanic in Ennery.

Police regained control in three of the 11 towns affected. Reports from the other eight were vague. In Gonaives, rebels continued patrolling the streets, but violence had subsided.

Bands of drunken pro-Aristide youths threw rocks at passing cars at the edge of northern Cap-Haitien. Others said they were protecting the city's half-million residents.

Remy Charlot said Aristide militants gutted his restaurant in Cap-Haitien Monday night. "Because I criticize the government, that's why they burned my restaurant," he said. "They came inside. They poured gasoline on all my stuff and they burned it."

After sporadic gunbattles Monday, police regained control of the port city of St. Marc, 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, and nearby Grand-Goave. At least two men were shot in St. Marc and another was killed, allegedly by Aristide supporters.

At Dondon, 12 miles outside Cap-Haitien, police helped by a pro-Aristide militia managed to fight off rebels Monday and regain control of the town. Aristide supporters then torched houses of nine anti-government activists there, Radio Vision 2000 reported.

Opposition politicians distanced themselves from the revolt, denying government contentions they were working with the rebels to stage a coup.

The United States, meanwhile, was "pushing very hard for an end to violence," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday. He said the U.S. government was urging Haitian leaders and the opposition to accept help from the Caribbean Community.

Last month, Trinidad's leader Patrick Manning said Caribbean nations were ready to send peacekeepers to Haiti, but Aristide's government rebuffed the offer.

Tolls put together from witnesses, Red Cross officials, rebel leaders and radio reports indicate at least 42 people, including policemen, have been killed in the uprising.

Haiti has suffered more than 30 coups in 200 years, the last in 1991 when Aristide was ousted just months after becoming the Caribbean nation's first freely elected leader. The United States sent 20,000 U.S. troops in 1994 to restore Aristide.

Tension has mounted since Aristide's party won flawed legislative elections in 2000 and international donors blocked millions of dollars in aid. Poverty has deepened, with most of the nation's 8 million people unemployed and living on less than $1 a day.