Dominican, Haiti floods kill hundreds

THE caskets of dozens of children lined Jimani’s streets after floods swept away villages and sent families into the darkness and mud in a frantic search for loved ones among the 500 dead and hundreds missing.

At least 358 people were killed in Haiti, while another 144 people died in the Dominican Republic, officials said yesterday.

The two countries form the island of Hispaniola, which bore the brunt of 10 days of heavy rain storms across the Caribbean.

Trucks dumped more than 100 bodies into a mass grave outside Jimani, a town of about 10,000 on the Haitian border. Sobbing families, meanwhile, waited for their children to be buried in cemeteries.

Heavy rains caused the Solie River to burst its banks, washing away three neighbourhoods of wooden shacks built by Haitian migrants working in the Dominican town. Many residents were asleep when the torrent of mud swept through on Monday.

“We can’t find her anywhere,” cried Norma Cuevas, 32, as she searched for her 63-year-old mother. She was among dozens of people clawing through mud with bare hands yesterday in search of relatives.

There were at least 180 bodies on the Dominican side of the island by late yesterday, according to one report. Another 100 had been buried in a mass grave, according to the Dominican National Rescue Commission’s Lt Virgilio Mejia.

Haiti’s Interior Ministry said there were 83 deaths on the Haitian side but the toll was rising as corpses were pulled from the mud. More than 250 were unaccounted for in the Dominican Republic and 62 were missing in Haiti, mostly in the town of Fond Verrette, near Jimani.

More than 100 troops from the US-led multinational force in Haiti flew to Fond Verrette, with water, medical supplies and food, according to US Marines Lt Col. Dave Lapan, a spokesman for the force.

Officials said up to 60 people were missing in the town, many of whom were feared dead, Lapan said.

About six miles outside of Jimani, trucks dumped scores of corpses into a ditch. No relatives were present for the burials.

Some of the dead on the Dominican side are believed to be family members of illegal Haitian workers living there and afraid to claim the bodies, officials said.

The Dominican government issued a warning on Sunday that rivers may swell. But Jimani has limited access to radio.

Elena Diaz, 42, who lost her daughter in the floods, had to wait in line outside the morgue where she went to look for her son-in-law and three grandchildren.

“They found my daughter. I have to see if I have some family left,” she said.