Flood rescuers fight weather

2004-05-28 20:36

Port-Au-Prince - An international rescue operation to help victims of floods in Haiti and the Dominican Republic struggled against bad weather on Friday as fears grew that the official toll of 929 dead would rise substantially.

A UN spokesperson said there were 1 500 dead or missing in Haiti alone.

Emergency relief teams in Haiti are struggling to get to the worst hit villages that are underneath up to 3m of water, said the spokesperson for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"We have about 1 500 people dead or missing (in Haiti), but this is a toll that may rise," said the spokesperson.

In Haiti, US and Canadian troops in a multi-nation force, UN relief agencies and non-government groups were trying to fly food, water and medical supplies to the worst-hit towns of Mapou Belle-Anse and Fonds Verettes.

But bad weather was holding up helicopter flights.

The official toll in the Dominican Republic was 350 dead and at least 374 missing, mainly in the devastated town of Jimani. In Haiti, the official death toll stands at 579.

Officials in both countries said the toll was likely to rise.

The UN said a local UN mission, the Red Cross and the Oxfam charity had flown to Mapou Belle-Anse in the southeast with 1.5 tons of water and water purification tablets.

A joint World Food Programme and Haitian health ministry team was trying to get to Fonds Verettes, northeast of Port-au-Prince.

At least 272 people were reported dead in Mapou Belle-Anse and at least 100 in the Grand Gosier area. Another 165 died in Fonds Verettes.

But hundreds are missing in the towns which like Jimani in the Dominican Republic were hit by flash floods on Monday after 10 days of heavy rain.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic make up the island of Hispaniola, which was worst hit by storms that swept across the Caribbean. The storms turned rivers into raging torrents that swept away people as they slept in their beds.

- AFP