22175: (Chamberlain) Caribbean-Cycle of Disaster (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 29 (AP) -- Last year there was drought followed by
flash floods at Christmas. This year, an armed revolt left the nation in
shambles. Now, as they try to meet growing needs with limited resources,
aid agencies confront yet another disaster in Haiti's never-ending cycle of
crises.
   Deadly rains have left more than 50,000 homeless, helpless and hungry in
floods that lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic and killed at least
1,000 people, aid workers said.
   Aid agencies braced for epidemics, particularly in Haiti's southwest
corner where workers are trying to free trapped corpses that risk
contaminating water sources. The putrid, standing water could cause
eruptions of dysentery, hepatitis, giardia and E. Coli. Mosquitos, which
carry parasites that cause malaria and dengue fever, already are breeding
in the standing water.
   "The last disaster that mobilized a global response like this was an
earthquake in Iran," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for U.N. Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said of the quake that killed at
least 26,000 people last year. "It is a very serious catastrophe in an area
that was already in crisis."
   The U.N. World Food Program was having to dip into supplies meant for
victims of the rebellion that helped force President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
from power Feb. 29. Rebels blocked roads, preventing food and fuel
shipments from reaching tens of thousands of drought victims in northern
Haiti.
   On Friday, aid workers rushed to deliver rice and beans to flood
victims, but torrents that washed out and submerged roads left them
dependent on U.S. military helicopters with a small capacity. Deliveries
were taking days to complete and could continue for weeks.
   Many of the worst affected villages remain under water.
   The International Committee of the Red Cross was working with French
Doctors Without borders to build a hospital in Mapou.
   "We have people here with broken legs and gashes (from) roof sheets
flying away and cutting them," said Erich Baumann of the Geneva-based ICRC.
   Hundreds were injured in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti, where
hospitals already were short of medicines from looting during the February
revolt.
   Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services said its clinic in the southern
Haitian town of Fond Verrettes was destroyed by the floods. A few badly
injured people were being medically evacuated by U.S.-led peacekeepers to
hospitals around the capital, Port-au-Prince.
   "This is the toughest year ever," said Ed Baptiste, 42, trying to sell
faded Haitian paintings on the side of the road.
   Left bankrupt by Aristide's administration, Haiti's interim leaders are
struggling to find money to rebuild and prepare for elections next year
while keeping a tentative peace.