An international rescue operation targeting Haiti and the Dominican Republic gathered pace as the death toll from flash floods rose to 918, with hundreds still missing.
The UN and other aid agencies were trying to get water and medical supplies to the worst hit towns, UN officials said. But bad weather held up efforts.
The official toll in the Dominican Republic rose on Thursday to 339 dead and at least 375 missing, mainly in the devastated town of Jimani. The official toll in Haiti rose by eight overnight to 579 dead.
PHOTO: EPA
National Emergency Commission spokesman Jose Luis German said 329 were confirmed dead, 375 missing and 122 injured in Jimani, which was virtually wiped out by the flash floods in the early hours of Monday.
Ten other deaths in the rest of the country have also been blamed on the floods.
German said the toll in the Jimani region would certainly rise as the affected zone was very spread out.
In Haiti, 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 Verette.
But bad weather was holding up helicopter flights.
A Geneva spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a local UN mission, the Red Cross and the Oxfam charity had flown to Mapou Belle-Anse in the southeast with 1.5 tonnes of water and water purification tablets.
A joint World Food Program and Haitian health ministry team was to go to Fonds Verette, north east of Port-au-Prince, with food supplies, the spokeswoman added.
Two teams of UN disaster experts were to leave for Haiti and the Dominican Republic yesterday to help the relief efforts, the OCHA spokeswoman said.
In Haiti, members of the multi-national force brought in to enforce security after former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide resigned and fled at the end of February were also trying to get emergency supplies to the worst-hit areas.
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.
European Commission chief Romano Prodi wrote to Haiti's interim President Boniface Alexandre, extending his "sympathy and solidarity" for the tragedy his country was going through.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic make up the island of Hispaniola, which was hit by 10 days of torrential rains, turning rivers into raging torrents. Many of the dead were swept away as they slept in their beds.
In Jimani, many of the people buried in mass graves because of public health concerns were women and children, although families could claim a relative's body.
"The problem is that entire families were lost," he said, "so there's no one to claim them."
More than 32,000 residents have moved out of Jimani, 280km west of Santo Domingo, near the border with Haiti. About 210 families lost their homes.
Hundreds of rescuers, firefighters and the Red Cross used backhoes and shovels to remove mud covering homes and streets as they looked for survivors, although hopes dimmed on the fourth day after the floods.
Dominican President Hipolito Mejia and US ambassador Hans Hertell examined the devastation. Mejia declared the town a disaster area and a day of national mourning.
The devastation was such that "even the cemetery was destroyed," German said.
Inhabitants of the two countries have told of miraculous survival tales as the Soleil River turned into a torrent in Jimani on Monday.
Bartolina Diaz, 65, said she clung to an iron door on her house that the waters could not drag away, while Dionisio Mendez, 86, who is blind, was swept 1km downstream before he managed to grab a tree.
The US said it had provided US$50,000, while Canada said it would release US$73,000 in aid to the region.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS