22046: (Chamberlain) At least 270 die in Dominican Rep. and Haiti floods (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>
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     By Manuel Jimenez

     SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, May 25 (Reuters) - At least 270
people have been killed in floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, many
of them swept away when rain-swollen rivers burst their banks, authorities
in the two neighboring Caribbean countries said on Tuesday.
     About 110 bodies had been recovered from the Jimani area of western
Dominican Republic, near the border with Haiti, and some 200 people were
believed to be missing, officials there said.
     In Haiti, up to 100 people were killed in the town of Fond Verettes
and the surrounding countryside, and 40 more died in the southeast region
of the country in the floods of the past two days, sources close to Haiti's
Civil Protection Office said.
     Twenty others died near the Haitian-Dominican border in the south of
the country, said a spokesman for a local humanitarian organization.
     Many of the victims died when landslides and floods caused their
houses to collapse, witnesses said.
     The island of Hispaniola, which the two countries share, has been
lashed with torrential rains in recent days.
     Haiti, with a population of about 8 million, is the poorest country in
the Americas. The Dominican Republic, with a population of 8.5 million, is
more prosperous, but parts of the country, such as the Jimani area, are
still desperately poor.
     The devastation in Jimani occurred when a river burst its banks early
on Monday, sending flood waters rushing through several poor neighborhoods
and destroying hundreds of fragile homes.
     Several survivors told local media they had been asleep when the
floods hit their homes.
     "It was all very fast, I couldn't do anything," said Ramon Perez
Feliz, who lost his sister and two nephews. "I was saved because the
current threw me away, out of the river bed," he said.
     Television stations showed scenes of dozens of bodies piled up in the
morgue at Jimani, many of them children and some caked with mud. Rescue
workers said more dead could be buried under the mud and debris.
     "It has been a great tragedy," said Dominican President Hipolito
Mejia, who sent army doctors, medical supplies and food to shelters set up
for people who lost their homes.
     About 50 of the dead in the Jimani area were Haitians who had crossed
the border to live and work.
     Flooding in other parts of the Dominican Republic killed four people
and forced thousands of people from their homes, officials said.
     Power was cut in many areas and crops were reported waterlogged, but
officials said that it was too early to give estimates of damage.
     The Dominican weather service said that about 10 inches (25 cm) of
rain fell in the last 24 hours in the Jimani area.