More heavy rains threaten Haiti and Dominican Republic

Heavy rains threaten the waterlogged southern border of Haiti and Dominican Republic even as rescue workers rush to collect decomposing bodies and reach villagers cut off days ago when torrents and mudslides buried entire communities.

Waters are expected to rise along with the official toll of around 1,000 dead in what is being called “one of the worst natural disasters to hit the Caribbean”, according to Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria of the Organisation of American States.

US-led troops including Marines, Canadians and Chileans said they would continue ferrying food, medicine, plastic sheeting for shelter and aid workers by helicopter to the worst-hit Haitian towns of Mapou and Fond Verrettes today.

On Thursday, aid workers on the Haitian side and Dominicans across the border dragged bodies from floodwaters.

Others handed out rice and beans and fresh water to survivors who said children appear to have been the biggest loss from flash floods and mudslides that cascaded down denuded mountains, submerging half the farming town of Mapou.

The international workers treated people who had broken limbs and gashes from aluminium roofs that tore away from homes when torrents of water barrelled down on Monday following three days of heavy rains.

But the emergency crews were working against time, warning of a possible epidemic and contaminated water supply if they do not quickly recover most bodies in the south-central part of Hispaniola island.

Dominican officials planned to spray disinfectant from planes over Jimani border town.

“It’s horrific. People are finding people in very odd and unreachable places - even hanging from the tops of trees,” said Sheyla Biamby of US Catholic Relief Services.

Aid workers expect to find many more hungry survivors and decaying bodies. Troops packed inflatable dinghies to reach outlying villages, and shovels and saws to free trapped people and corpses.

“We found six bodies and we think there are about 70 at one side and 30 on another side,” Erich Baumann of the International Committee of the Red Cross said, pointing to a soccer-field size lake of putrid water and mud where disease-bearing mosquitos already are breeding in Mapou.

Homes were buried over their roofs, only the tops of palm trees showing amid bobbing blobs believed to be bodies.

US Marines “are looking at the possibility of airlifting bodies out of here” for burial elsewhere, said Lieutenant Colonel Duane Perry.

French troops in the multinational peacekeeping force in Haiti hurried in a road convoy across the Dominican border to Jimani, erecting tents for the homeless and burying 23 bodies recovered from the banks of a saltwater lake crawling with crocodiles.

“The magnitude of the disaster is much worse than we expected,” said Guy Gavreau, director of the UN World Food Programme in Haiti.

Officially, Haiti’s government reported recovering 592 bodies by yesterday and the Dominicans 442, many Haitians who had crossed to cut sugar cane or sell goods.

The US said it was providing $50,000 (€40,000) to each country, and the OAS $25,000 (€20,000) each. Catholic Relief Services promised $200,000 (€160,000) in aid.

The Dominican National Meteorological Office today warned of inundating rain with thunderstorms sure to hamper rescue efforts.

Forecasters urged people to get to high ground. That will be impossible for unknown hundreds stranded around Mapou, in a valley surrounded by denuded 2,000-meter mountains where torrents early Monday collected silt, gravel and boulders, gathering speed as they brought down doom.

Hundreds gathered as aid workers and troops handed out rice, beans and bottled water – meant to provide their first meal since Monday, though each family got only two litres of water to quench their thirst and cook.