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.

"In Mapou, the situation is serious because the entire town is submerged in water," said US Marine Lt Col Dave Lapan. "We're also fighting time because weather is turning bad again."

US and Canadian troops, sent to Haiti after rebels ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, were ferrying water and supplies to Mapou, 30 miles southeast of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. As many as 1,000 people were feared dead in Mapou, said Margarette Martin, the government's representative for the southeast region in nearby Jacmel.

In the Haitian border town of Fond Verrettes, meanwhile, more troops handed out food yesterday to hundreds of survivors. Troops were also ferrying plastic tarpaulins to families seeking shelter.

Rains over the weekend lashed the island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, sweeping away entire neighbourhoods early on Monday.

Including the 300 known dead so far in Mapou, some 450 bodies have been recovered in Haiti. At least 158 more people in Fond Verrettes were missing and presumed dead.

At least 417 bodies had been recovered in the Dominican Republic, and officials said some 400 were missing.

"The river took everything, there isn't anything left," said Jermanie Vulsont, a mother who said the rushing water swept away her five children in Fond Verrettes, about 35 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince.

Rushing waters and mudslides swept away most homes in Fond Verrettes, leaving it looking like a barren riverbed with stunned residents wondering about and asking troops for help.

"For a while we didn't even realize what we were standing on," said Lance Cpl. Justin Collins, 21, one of about 20 Marines who went to help feed villagers. "We were standing on some parts of a neighbourhood. It's clear they need more food and water."

Among the known dead in Haiti were 100 bodies found in the southern town of Grand Gosier, said Civil Protection Director Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste. Fifty more corpses were found elsewhere.

In the Dominican Republic, US Ambassador Hans Hertell flew to the border town of Jimani yesterday to assess the damage. "This situation is grim and we're looking at ways to get more money here," he said.

The floods struck before dawn on Monday while people were sleeping. In Jimani, Leonardo Novas awoke to the screams of his infant son while water rose in his wooden house. He huddled with his wife and three children, and shouted to his brother next door to stay inside, but it was too late. The force of the mud took all but one wall of Novas' house.

"Everything's gone. My house and five family members," said Novas, 28, who watched his brother and the brother's family carried away in a crushing torrent of mud.

Dominican authorities buried more than 250 bodies immediately, some where they were found and others in a mass grave. Authorities told families there was no time to identify many of the bodies because they were badly decomposed and posed health risks if moved. Jimani, about 100 miles east of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, is inhabited mostly by Haitian migrants who work as vendors and sugar cane cutters. Dominican officials said some of the Haitians who lost relatives may have been living in the town illegally and were scared to identify bodies.

The death tolls have been high because the border area is largely deforested and many of the poor have built poorly constructed homes.