Toll in Caribbean Floods Tops 860; Mud Hinders Rescue Efforts

FOND-VERRETTES, Haiti —  The death toll from floods and mudslides on the island of Hispaniola jumped to more than 860 Wednesday as emergency workers searched for survivors and buried the victims.

But the mud flows have prevented rescue teams from reaching many parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the two countries that share the island, and the toll could go much higher. Hundreds of people are still missing.

Margarette Martin, a regional government official, said late Wednesday night that about 300 bodies were recovered in the southern Haitian town of Mapou, one of the places that is still isolated by slides that covered or destroyed roads on Monday.

Health officials feared that as many as 1,000 people could be dead in the town, 30 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince, because houses were submerged and rescuers saw bodies underwater that they were unable to retrieve.

Late Wednesday, Haitian officials said the number of confirmed deaths in their country had risen to about 450. There were 417 confirmed deaths in the Dominican Republic.

The death toll has been high because the border area is largely deforested, allowing flash floods carrying mud and debris to easily sweep away flimsy homes and crude shacks of wood and tin.

Dominican authorities told families that there was no time to identify many of the bodies because they were badly decomposed and posed health risks if moved. Many bodies were dumped in a mass grave or buried by Dominican soldiers where they were found.

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

On the other side of the border, troops from a U.S.-led multinational force sent to stabilize Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted Feb. 29 flew by helicopter to the town of Fond-Verrettes, bringing food and water to thousands of Haitians.

Residents pulled furniture and other items from the streets, where they had been swept by the flood, and stacked mud-caked possessions along the sides of the roads.

Mudslides and landslides from an adjacent hill covered most of the town.

Manie Ceceron, 37, lost her five children. “The rain came. I was in the house and I ran,” she said. “I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t see my children. I never saw my children.”