Troops rush in as storms kill 1,000

AMERICAN and Canadian troops yesterday rushed to a town left completely submerged by flooding and where health officials feared 1,000 people could be dead in that town alone.

The death toll there would nearly double the toll from storms that hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic. About 300 bodies have been counted so far in the isolated border town of Mapou, said Dr Yvon Lavissiere, the health director for the region.

That brought the confirmed death toll from Haiti and the Dominican Republic to nearly 870.