22059: (Chamberlain) Storm toll in Haiti and DR (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   JIMANI, Dominican Republic, May 25 (AP) -- Sobbing villagers tore
through heaps of mud with their bare hands Tuesday, searching for loved
ones as the death toll from flooding in the Dominican Republic and Haiti
rose to at least 263. Trucks dumped scores of corpses into a mass grave on
the outskirts of this impoverished border town.
   An Associated Press reporter counted at least 180 bodies on the
Dominican side of Hispaniola island, and 83 were confirmed dead in Haiti.
But the toll was steadily rising, as rescue workers and family members
continued to pull corpses from the mud.
   More than 250 people were unaccounted for in the Dominican Republic and
62 were reportedly missing in Haiti, mostly in the town of Fond Verrette,
near Jimani.
   "I've looked at the bodies in the morgue and couldn't recognize any of
them," said Jude Joseph, 30, who came from Haiti's capital of
Port-au-Prince to sell rice at a border market and visit family members in
Bobmita, La Quarenta and Barrio El Tanque, neighborhoods of Jimani that
were swept away in the floods.
   "I don't know what to do. I've been left with nothing," said Joseph,
whose nine relatives were missing late Tuesday.
   Rain has pelted the island for weeks, but a downpour Monday caused the
Solie River to burst its banks, sweeping away the three neighborhoods of
wooden shacks built mostly by Haitian migrants working in this Dominican
town. At least 50 of the dead on the Dominican side were Haitians.
   "I found them this morning," said Shela Lena, 24, who lost her
sister-in-law and 3-year-old nephew Tuesday. She came from Port-au-Prince
to work as a maid.
   About six miles outside of Jimani, emergency workers in surgical masks
and white gloves watched as trucks dumped the 60 naked corpses into a
15-foot ditch. More bodies were on their way. No relatives were present at
the grave.
   Some on the Dominican side were believed to be Haitian workers living
there illegally and therefore afraid to claim the bodies of family members.
   The Dominican government had issued an alert Sunday, warning people that
rivers may swell with the rains. But Jimani -- more than 100 miles west of
the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo -- has only limited access to radio
broadcasts.
   People whose houses still stood on Tuesday scooped water from their
living rooms. Chairs and mattresses floated in deep pools of water as dark
clouds threatened more rain.
   As rescue workers and families pulled bodies from the mud, medical teams
draped work areas with mosquito netting. The insects can carry parasites
that cause malaria and dengue fever. Some people were also being given
tetanus shots.
   "We can't find her anywhere," cried Norma Cuevas, 32, as she desperately
searched for her 63-year-old mother among dozens of other families reaching
their hands through mud.
   U.S. Marines, who are leading a 3,600-member multinational task force
sent to stabilize Haiti since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide on Feb. 29, were heading to Fond Verrette to look for victims and
help in emergency work. Haiti's U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard
Latortue was expected to fly to Fond Verrette later Tuesday.
   Many roads on both countries were still impassable.
   Elena Diaz, 42, who lost her daughter in the floods, sobbed as she
waited in a long line outside the morgue where she went to look for her
son-in-law and three grandchildren.
   "They found my daughter. Now I have to see if I have some family left,"
she said.
   The raging water carried some victims away. Bodies were found as far
away as six miles downstream, said Maximo Noves Espinal, an emergency
official in Jimani.
   Haitian officials were struggling to determine the full extent of the
tragedy.
   Since a three-week armed rebellion pushed Aristide from power, Haiti's
interim leaders have struggled to provide basic services to its 8 million
people. Left nearly bankrupt, the government has scant resources to deal
with natural disasters.
   The rains left at least three others dead in other parts of the
Dominican Republic while one man was also killed in Puerto Rico. Another
man was killed aboard a Guyanese-registered freighter that sank Monday in
rough seas.
   The floods were some of the deadliest in a decade.
   In 1994, Tropical Storm Gordon caused mudslides that buried at least 829
Haitians. More recently, nearly 30 people died in September during floods
caused by heavy rain in St. Marc, about 45 miles northwest of the capital,
Port-au-Prince.