22180: (Chamberlain) Hunt for Haiti flooding victims widens (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 31 (Reuters) - Relief workers already
feeding and sheltering thousands of Haitians on Monday widened searches to
outlying areas for more survivors of flooding and mudslides that killed
about 2,000 people.
     The searches went on even as emergency rations of food, water and
other supplies appeared to be sufficient in the worst-hit areas of Haiti to
allow suspension on Monday of deliveries by U.S. and Canadian military
helicopters, according to a spokesman for a multinational force.
     "We are assessing where we are and meeting with U.N. and
(nongovernmental organizations) officials to see where we stand," said U.S.
Marine Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, a member of the international force posted in
Haiti since the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     Lapan said flight crews and the helicopters, which had transported
over 125 tons of supplies since Tuesday, needed rest or maintenance,
especially since other emergencies in the poorest nation in the Americas
cannot be ruled out.
     "We need to see what we've done and assess how we would be able to
respond to another crisis. It is the rainy season here and the hurricane
season starts tomorrow," Lapan said.
     Heavy rains a week ago spawned torrents of mud and debris that swept
away homes and buried residents in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the
two nations that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Many hundreds
remain missing, according to officials.
     Among the NGOs active in Haiti is the World Food Program, a U.N.
relief group that has dispatched a team to determine the fate of residents
of small villages outside Fond Verettes, according to spokesman Inigo
Alvarez.
     Fond Verettes, near the Dominican border, had been a focus of relief
efforts. Mapou, some 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Haiti's capital,
Port-au-Prince, was also hard hit.
     "Some of these isolated villages may need help," Alvarez said. "In
Mapou, there is still much water (on the ground) but in Fond Verettes,
there is not much water left."
     Red Cross groups searching outside Mapou on Monday identified a fourth
outlying village that may be vulnerable to more mud slides, spokesman
Bernard Barett said. Officials fear accumulated rocks and stones may tumble
down on the villages.
     In the Dominican Republic, officials said more than 400 people had
been killed in the disaster, almost all in Jimani, near the border with
Haiti. Another 300 are missing in and around the town.
     The stench of decomposing bodies was strong in Jimani, despite rescue
workers' effort to recover corpses and bury them. Health officials were
focused on preventing disease.
     Radhames Lora Salcedo, director of emergency operations in the
Dominican Republic, said work to build new homes for the more than 600
families displaced in the Jimani area was to start on Monday.
     Authorities in the Dominican Republic, which is more prosperous and
more politically stable than Haiti, also want to restore water pipes to the
area.
     Aristide and his family flew from Jamaica and landed in South Africa
on Monday for an indefinite exile. Aristide, who was ousted in February
after a bloody revolt, said he still regards himself as the constitutional
leader of Haiti, which has an average per capita annual income among its 8
million people of about $300.

     (Additional reporting by Manuel Jimenez in Santo Domingo and by
Michael Connor in Miami)