22131: (Chamberlain) Death, survival in Haiti's flood-struck Mapou (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     MAPOU, Haiti, May 28 (Reuters) - When the flood came to the Haitian
town of Mapou in the middle of the night, 16-year-old Santa Modeus thought
she would die until she rammed into the tree that saved her life.
     Modeus told her tale of survival on Friday as foreign troops and
international aid workers rushed 20 tonnes of rice, cereal and vegetables
to the submerged village, crushed by the torrential rains and floods that
savaged the Caribbean island of Hispaniola and killed an estimated 2,000
people.
     Sinking as the torrent swept her along, Modeus latched onto a tree and
climbed out of the water, where she clung to the branches for hours until
rescue came toward midday. Her mother and two siblings died, among the
1,000 people officials say were killed in Mapou.
     "It's God that saved me. While I was under water, I was saying that I
was going to die," she said, nursing a wound on her right arm. "I went into
a tree, and I hung onto it, and I climbed it and that's what saved me."
     A village of several thousand people in a valley about 25 miles (40
km) southeast of Haiti's capital, Mapou remained under water and
inaccessible by road on Friday as rescuers sped water, purification tablets
and emergency food rations by helicopter to thousands of stranded people.
     Witnesses said corpses of flood victims trapped for days in submerged
homes were beginning to float to the surface of the lake that covered
Mapou. Only a few rooftops were visible above the water.
     Aid workers say nearly 300 bodies were recovered in Mapou, while a
local government official put the death toll at 1,000, with hundreds of
bodies trapped under water or buried in mud.
     "We are concerned that the death toll could go even beyond 1,000,
given the fact there are a lot of bodies either floating on the water or
buried under the mud that have not been recovered yet," said Guy Gauvreau,
director of the World Food Program in Haiti.
     Villagers said those who survived clung to the tops of trees or
climbed to rooftops, from which they were plucked by men who fashioned a
crude rescue raft from a door lashed to two palm tree trunks.
     Fedner Salomond, a 39-year-old father of three, said he faced a
terrible choice when flood waters rushed into his home in the dark. He had
one of his children in his arms but was unable to reach the other two
before making a desperate climb to the roof.
     "The one in my hands, I had to let go. I could not climb with him,
because I was going to die," Salomond said. "It was very sad; my heart was
breaking, but I had to make a choice whether both of us died or I was
saved."
     The death toll in Haiti stood at about 1,800, including the 1,000
reported deaths in Mapou, hundreds more in surrounding villages in the
southeast and some 160 in Fond Verettes, a town near the Dominican border.
About 350 people were killed in the Dominican Republic, most in the border
town of Jimani.
     Just three months after a bloody rebellion that ousted its president
and government, Haiti was confronting its worst natural disaster in a
decade with the help of U.S., French and other foreign troops sent by the
United Nations for security.
     Military helicopters meant for peacekeeping duties were providing
critical transport to remote villages. Some flights were grounded by
thunderstorms on Thursday, and bad weather threatened the rescue effort
again on Friday.
     Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. Most of its 8 million
people scratch out a living from the land and per-capita annual income is
about $300.
     Haitians have cut down virtually all of the nation's trees to make
charcoal for cooking fuel, leaving the barren land vulnerable to flash
floods and mudslides.
     Haiti's new leader, Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, announced plans on
Friday to tackle the problem. "I have plans to speak to the members of my
cabinet ... and maybe set up an emergency plan, invite students to take
part in a plan to reforest the country," Latortue told a news conference on
a visit to Mexico.
     "The main cause (of deforestation) is that Haitians like to use wood
for cooking, as an energy source. We have been doing it for years and now
it is impossible to continue," the prime minister said at a summit of
European, Latin American and Caribbean leaders in the city of Guadalajara.

    (Additional reporting by Manuel Jimenez in Jimani)