16600: Chamberlain: Haiti-Floods (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   ST. MARC, Aug 30 (AP) -- Torrential rains burst river banks, sweeping
away at least eight people and destroying dozens of flimsy riverside shacks
in Haiti's west-coast city of St. Marc, officials said Saturday.
   About 200 people of the city's 60,000 residents fled their homes and
took refuge in government offices and a high school, said Gerald Joseph
with Haiti's civil defense.
   Seven people were missing and more than 200 homes were destroyed or
damaged before the storm passed over the city, independent radio station
KISKEYA reported.
   Junie Louis-Pierre, 33, said she watched as her husband, 35-year-old
Norius Dezimar, was sucked away by strong currents after he was able to get
her and their three children to safety on the roof of their home. He was
missing but presumed dead, Louis-Pierre said.
   Most damage occurred along a 1.25-mile stretch of the Grande Riviere,
which flows through the city, when the river burst its banks during a
five-hour storm Friday afternoon. The raging waters tore away flimsy
tin-roofed shacks and in some places, the water level rose 2-3 feet.
   "We watched the water rise and when it entered the house we ran," said
76-year-old Delise Toussaint, who spent the night sleeping in the woods
with his family of 10.
   His three-room house just outside St. Marc was swept away.
   Rain pelted the Artibonite district in west-central Haiti on Friday,
swelling streams and rivers that descended on seaside St. Marc.
   As waters from the storm subsided, the bodies of eight victims,
apparently drowned, were found Saturday morning in the city 40 miles west
of Port-au-Prince.
   The local government representative, Daniel Jean-Charles, told The
Associated Press it would take a week to determine the death toll because
bodies may have been washed out to sea. He did not estimate how many people
were missing.
   Saturday was bright and sunny, and residents began shoveling mud from
their cinderblock homes, and hoisting sopping, mud-stained mattresses and
clothing outside to dry. They also were scrubbing mud out of pillowcases
and sheets.
   Currents carried away a 60-foot tractor trailer which lodged under the
downtown Estime Bridge, blocking the flow of water, which sheared off on
each side of the trailer.
   Several government bulldozers began clearing debris, but some residents
complained of a delay in government assistance.
   "The government does nothing for us," said 32-year-old Pierre Ronald,
his face and clothing spattered with mud. "We can't count on them."
   His house was destroyed and he said he found a body washed upon the
muddy banks behind the crumpled remains.
   "What hurts us the most is that we feel abandoned," said 60-year-old
Sultane Derilus, whose cabinetmaker son lost all of his tools in the flood.
   Jean-Charles promised food, clothing and water would be distributed to
flood victims later in the day.