Medical aid rushed to flood disaster towns

US and Canadian troops rushed medical supplies, drinking water and chlorine tablets today to flood-battered towns where bodies were floating near the tops of palm trees and thousands of marooned survivors were in desperate need of aid.

The official death toll climbed to about 1,000 in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but with hundreds missing in both countries, it was feared that the final toll could climb as high as 2,000.

Rain returned yesterday and fell steadily as US Marines delivered drinking water and chlorine tablets to hundreds in the southern town of Mapou, where most houses were submerged under more than 10 feet of water.

As many as 1,000 were feared dead in Mapou, according to Margarette Martin, the government’s representative in the southeast province.

Officials had counted about 300 bodies in the town, 30 miles southeast of the capital of Port-au-Prince, said Dr Yvon Lavissiere, the region’s health director.

Mudslides had washed out roads, forcing aid workers and troops to fly in by helicopter. UN teams were trying to arrange boats to help recover bodies trapped under trees and in houses in Mapou.

“You can still see bodies in the water coming up,” said Michel Matera, a UN technical adviser for disasters who travelled to Mapou yesterday. “Palm trees are almost covered… There is a grave risk of an epidemic.”

An estimated 10,000 people in 26 surrounding villages are in urgent need of help and essentially cut off by roads devoured mudslides, Matera said.

“We are still having difficulty reaching them even by helicopter,” he said. “We cannot land because of the flooding, nor can we get there on foot.”

The UN World Food Programme planned to try to deliver eight tons of food to Mapou on Friday, if troops could provide helicopters.