22132: (Chamberlain) Caribbean-Storms (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   MAPOU, Haiti, May 28 (AP) -- U.S. troops delivered food and water to
this remote farming town, where reporters saw for the first time Friday the
worst devastation from deadly floods that have inundated parts of Haiti and
the Dominican Republic and left Mapou under 10 feet of water.
   Aid workers dragged bodies and treated survivors who had broken limbs
and gashes from aluminum roofs after torrents of water caused mudslides to
cascade down denuded mountains Monday, destroying half of the town's 2,800
houses.
   The flooding has left hundreds dead and thousands homeless across the
south-central part of Hispaniola island, shared by the two countries. The
death toll, impossible to estimate, is increasing daily as authorities find
more cut-off villages and towns.
   "We are trying to get a count but we estimate about a thousand dead"
just among the Mapou's 3,500 people, said U.S. Lt. Col. Duane Perry, who
commanded Marines as they ferried emergency supplies and aid workers in
helicopters Friday.
   Mapou, which U.S. troops discovered only Wednesday while flying
overhead, is just 30 miles southeast of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince,
but is cut off except by helicopter.
   Hundreds gathered as World Food Program workers handed out bags of rice
and beans and bottles of water -- meant to provide their first meal since
Monday, though each family got only two quarts of water to quench their
thirst and cook their rice and beans.
   "Back up! Back up!" a young Marine holding an M-16 yelled at a group who
rushed the food distribution area. The Creole-speaking Haitians did not
understand the English words, but they got the tone, and held off.
   In the crowd was Jean-Claude Germain, a 25-year-old farmer who said he
and his wife escaped the floods "by the grace of God."
   "I had to watch everything I love and own washed away by the waters, but
I never even saw my children being taken." He said he lost two boys and two
girls along with his sister-in-law and her two children.
   Ivse Toussaint, 35, lost his wife and his six children, aged 2-16.
   "I tried to get my kids up on the roof but the water was moving too
fast," he said. "When it reached my head, I couldn't see the children and
pulled myself through a window and up to the roof."
   He said neighbors in a canoe rescued him six hours later as the water
went down.
   The floods struck early Monday following three days of heavy rains. Many
residents said hundreds of people managed to flee the torrents and were
sheltering with families and friends in neighboring towns.
   On Friday, American, Canadian and Chilean troops arrived in Mapou in
helicopters loaded with water, food, medical supplies and aid workers --
along with shovels and pick axes to try to recover bodies.
   International aid organizations warned of the possibility of finding
many more hungry survivors and decaying bodies in remote areas. With few
roads passable and only 14 helicopters, U.S.-led troops packed inflatable
dinghies to reach outlying villages.
   "The magnitude of the disaster is much worse than we expected with many,
many more people affected," said Guy Gavreau, director of the U.N. World
Food Program in Haiti.
   French troops rushed Friday to the Dominican border town of Jimani,
erecting tents for the homeless and burying 23 bodies recovered from the
banks of a saltwater lake crawling with crocodiles.
   "It's horrific. People are finding people in very odd and unreachable
places -- even hanging from the tops of trees," said Sheyla Biamby of
Catholic Relief Services in Port-au-Prince.
   In Mapou, International Committee of the Red Cross workers pulled seven
decomposing bodies from an area of submerged homes where only the tops of
palm trees showed above water and mud. They placed the corpses in body bags
and buried them in higher ground.
   The emergency crews were working against time, warning of a possible
epidemic if they do not quickly recover most of the bodies in the
devastated border region.
   They feared contamination of the underground water supply, which people
here access through wells. Dominican officials said they plan to use planes
to spray disinfectant over Jimani to keep decomposing bodies from spreading
disease.
   The United States has provided $50,000 each in immediate relief to Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
said.
   Gavreau said the World Food Program distributed food to about 1,000
families in Mapou on Friday. "But we need four or five times that amount
here" -- much more than can be carried in by helicopter.
   He said they also would have to help survivors for far longer than
expected because crops of corn and other vegetables were destroyed and the
soccer field-size lake created by the floods also carried corpses of pigs
and goats.
   Four days after the floods, rain was falling Friday and weather
forecasters said another three inches was expected over the weekend. Aid
workers handed out plastic sheeting to help shelter survivors.
   The official Haitian governmental toll climbed to 592 on Friday with the
addition of 13 bodies found in Port-a-Piment, but that did not include the
bodies found in Mapou.
   At least 442 bodies have been recovered in the Dominican Republic, a
number of them Haitian migrants who had crossed over to work as sugar cane
cutters or market vendors.
   Still, there were signs of hope.
   Pounding hammers rang out Friday as Dominican soldiers and volunteers
raised the first wooden frames of some 300 homes the government pledged to
build for victims in Jimani, where the Solie River overflowed its banks and
obliterated entire neighborhoods. This time, the houses are being built
farther from the river.
   Perry, the U.S. Marine, said a U.S. helicopter flying to the Haitian
town of Fond Verrettes happened upon the disaster at Mapou.
   "We discovered this when we were flying over Wednesday," Perry said. "We
looked down and said 'It looks like there was a town there, let's see
what's going on.'"
   ------
   Associated Press writer Amy Bracken contributed to this report from
Port-au-Prince, Haiti.