22075: (Chamberlain) Storm toll in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   JIMANI, Dominican Republic, May 26 (AP) -- Rescue workers with dogs and
shovels searched muddy villages Wednesday for victims of deadly floods in
the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti. The death toll rose to more
than 550, with hundreds still missing.
   U.S.-led troops returned to stricken Haitian towns early Wednesday,
bringing drinking water, medical supplies and food. The troops are from a
multinational force sent to stabilize Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was ousted Feb. 29.
   The Haitian government said 250 bodies have been found -- most in
southern Haiti -- with 158 missing and presumed dead in Fond Verette, near
the Dominican border town of Jimani, where another 300 were killed by the
weekend storm.
   About 100 of the corpses were recovered in the southern Haitian town of
Grand Gosier, 30 miles west of the Dominican border, and another 100 were
found in neighboring Mopou, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, Haiti's Civil
Protection director. The other bodies were found in Haiti's central and
western provinces.
   Dominican troops found at least 20 badly decomposed, half-buried bodies
Wednesday, raising the toll around the border town of Jimani to more than
300.
   Families in the town were given forms asking them to list missing
relatives.
   "The victims we find will be buried where they are," said Eddy Olivares
with the Dominican Republic's Civil Defense. He said many corpses were so
badly decomposed they could not be moved.
   In Haiti, meanwhile, workers recovered about 100 corpses in southern
Grand Gosier and 100 more in the neighboring town of Mopou, said Haiti's
Civil Protection Director Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste.
   At least 158 were missing in Fond Verette, a Haitian border town, and
Dominican officials said more than 250 were unaccounted for on their side
of the border.
   Trucks dumped more than 100 bodies into a mass grave on Tuesday outside
of Jimani, a Dominican town of about 10,000 on the Haitian border and
largely populated by Haitian migrants. Sobbing families waited for the tiny
caskets of their children to be buried.
   In the days leading up to the flooding, heavy rains pelted the island of
Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic and Haiti share, causing the
shared Solie River in the southern border town of Jimani to burst its
banks. Many were sleeping on Monday when torrents of mud swept away entire
villages.
   "We can't find her anywhere," cried Norma Cuevas, 32, as she desperately
searched for her 63-year-old mother Tuesday.
   An Associated Press reporter had counted at least 200 bodies on the
Dominican side of the border by Wednesday. Officials said another 100 or so
had been dumped in a mass grave, according to Lt. Virgilio Mejia, with the
Dominican National Rescue Commission.
   Multinational forces in Haiti made 12 helicopter trips to Fond Verette
on Tuesday to assess the needs of an estimated 3,000 people. The town's
roads have been blocked by mudslides.
   Help has not yet been able to reach Mopou, and more than 150 are
reportedly injured and without health care, the Haitian government said.
Other towns were also in need.
   "There are other places that need help but we can't do it all," said
U.S. Marines Lt. Col. Dave Lapan, whose forces are set to make a handover
to a U.N. force on June 1.
   The death tolls have been high in Haiti because the impoverished nation
is nearly 90 percent deforested and many of the poor build poorly
constructed homes.
   Jimani, about 100 miles west of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo,
is inhabited mostly by Haitian migrants who settled in makeshift villages
to sell food at the markets held on Tuesdays and Fridays.
   Dominican officials said some of the Haitians who lost family members
may have been living in the town illegally and were scared to identify
bodies.
   The Dominican government had issued an alert Sunday, warning people that
rivers may swell with the rains. But Jimani has only limited access to
radio broadcasts.
   People whose houses still stood scooped water from their living rooms
Tuesday while chairs and mattresses floated in pools of water. Hundreds of
houses were destroyed on both sides of the border.
   As rescue workers and families pulled bodies from the mud, medical teams
draped work areas with mosquito netting. The insects can carry parasites
that cause malaria and dengue fever. Some people were also being given
tetanus shots.
   The floods were some of the deadliest in a decade.
   In 1994, Tropical Storm Gordon caused mudslides that buried at least 829
Haitians. More recently, nearly 30 people died in September during floods
caused by heavy rain in St. Marc, about 45 miles northwest of the capital,
Port-au-Prince.
   ------
   Associated Press writers Amy Bracken in Haiti and Jose P. Monegro in
Santo Domingo contributed to this report.