22099: (Chamberlain) Caribbean-Storms (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By
 AMY BRACKEN
   and
 PETER PRENGAMAN

   FOND VERRETTES, Haiti, May 27 (AP) -- U.S. and Canadian troops rushed to
a town submerged by flooding where up to 1,000 people were feared dead
Thursday, and more rain was predicted after storms that wiped out villages
across Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
   If the fears of the numbers of dead in the border town of Mapou prove
true, it would nearly double the death toll on the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola and make the storm one of the worst disasters to hit the
Caribbean in decades.
   In a race against time as more dark rain clouds moved in, the troops
were ferrying water and supplies to Mapou, most of which was under 10 feet
of water.
   About 300 bodies have been counted so far in the town, 30 miles
southeast of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, said Dr. Yvon
Lavissiere, the health director for the southeast region.
   That brought the confirmed death toll from Haiti and the Dominican
Republic to nearly 870.
   Lavissiere said many more bodies still had to be collected, and
Margarette Martin, the government's representative for the region, said the
toll in Mapou could be as high as 1,000 people.
   "The entire town is submerged in water ... We're also fighting time
because weather is turning bad again," said U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Dave
Lapan, a spokesman for the U.S.-led multinational task force in Haiti, sent
after rebels ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29.
   The U.S. National Weather Service said Thursday at least 3 inches of
rain were expected for the southern border region between Haiti and the
Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola.
   Rains over the weekend lashed the island of Hispaniola, sweeping away
entire neighborhoods early Monday.
   In the Haitian border town of Fond Verrettes, more troops handed out
food Thursday to hundreds of survivors who lined up seeking help. Troops
were also ferrying plastic tarpaulins to families seeking shelter.
   Including the 300 known dead so far in Mapou, some 450 bodies have
been"recovered in Haiti. At least 158 more people in Fond Verrettes were
missing and presumed dead.
   At least 417 bodies had been recovered in the Dominican Republic, and
officials said some 400 were missing -- most in a border region where many
migrant workers from Haiti were living.
   In the Dominican town of Jimani, 18-year-old Haitian Pepe Dematin
searched for his brother's family of five.
   "I came to find them, but their house is gone," Dematin said. "I think
they must be dead. Now I don't know what I'm going to do."
   Just across the border in Haiti, Fond Varrettes looked like a barren
riverbed after rushing waters and mudslides swept away most homes.
   "The river took everything, there isn't anything left," said Jermanie
Vulsont, whose five children were washed away in the flooding.
   "For a while we didn't even realize what we were standing on," said
Lance Cpl. Justin Collins, 21, of Avon, Ill., one of about 20 Marines who
went to help feed villagers. "We were standkng on some parts of a
neighborhood. It's clear they need more food and water."
   Among the known dead in Haiti were 100 bodies found in the southern town
of Grand Gosier, said Civil Protection Director Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste.
Fifty more corpses were found elsewhere.
   In the Dominican Republic, U.S. Ambassador Hans Hertell flew to the
border town of Jimani early Thursday to assess the damage. "This situation
is grim and we're looking at ways to get more money here," he said.
   The floods struck before dawn Monday. In Jimani, Leonardo Novas awoke to
the screams of his infant son while water rose in his wooden house. He
huddled with his wife and three children, and shouted to his brother next
door to stay inside, but it was too late.
   The force of the mud took all but one wall of Novas' house.
   "Everything's gone. My house and five family members," said Novas, 28,
who watched his brother and the brother's family carried away in a crushing
torrent of mud.
   Dominican authorities buried more than 250 bodies immediately, some
where they were found and others in a mass grave. Authorities told families
there was no time to identify many of the bodies because they were badly
decomposed and posed health risks if moved.
   Jimani, about 100 miles east of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo,
is inhabited mostly by Haitian migrants who work as vendors and sugar cane
cutters. Dominican officials said some of the Haitians who lost relatives
may have been living in the town illegally and were scared to identify
bodies.
   The death tolls have been high because the border area is largely
deforested and many of the poor have built poorly constructed homes out of
wood and tin. Hundreds of homes were destroyed on both sides of the border.
   The floods were some of the deadliest in the region in recent years. In
1994, Tropical Storm Gordon caused mudslides that buried at least 829
Haitians. As many as 15,000 people are estimated to have died in 1999
flooding and mudslides in Venezuela.
   The Dominican government declared Jimani a disaster area, and President
Hipolito Mejia said Thursday would be a national day of mourning.
   "The damage and human losses have been of such magnitude," Mejia said in
his declaration, adding that sending aid is of "high national interest."
   ------
   Associated Press Writer Jose P. Monegro, in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic, contributed to this report.