THE CARIBBEAN: At least 270 people have been killed in floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, many of them caught in mud slides or swept away when rain-swollen rivers burst their banks in the two neighbouring Caribbean countries.
Canadian troops and US marines flew helicopters with relief supplies to the worst-hit part of Haiti, a spokesman for a US-led peacekeeping force said yesterday.
The flooding followed days of torrential rain on the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Some 110 people were killed in the Jimani area of western Dominican Republic, near the border with Haiti, and 200 people are believed to be missing.
In Haiti, up to 100 people were killed in the town of Fond Verettes and the surrounding countryside, and 40 more died in the south-east of the country in the past two days, according to sources close to Haiti's Civil Protection Office.
"The village itself - a large portion of it - has complete washed away," said Lieut Col Dave Lapan, a spokesman for the multinational force, of the devastated town of Fond Verettes.
"The water swept down from the high ground, causing mud slides. The river bed has covered structures and houses."
Twenty other people died in the south of the country near the Dominican border, said a spokesman for a local humanitarian organisation.
The foreign peacekeepers, who number about 3,500, are in Haiti to try to restore order after an armed revolt ousted former president Mr Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February.
Haiti, with a population of about 8 million, is the poorest country in the Americas.
The Dominican Republic, with a population of 8.5 million, is more prosperous, but parts of the country, such as the Jimani area, are still very poor.
The devastation in Jimani occurred when a river burst its banks early on Monday, sending flood waters rushing through several poor neighbourhoods and destroying hundreds of fragile homes.
Several survivors told local media they had been asleep when the floods hit their homes.
"It was all very fast, I couldn't do anything," said Mr Ramon Perez Feliz, who lost his sister and two nephews. I was saved because the current threw me away, out of the river bed."
Television stations showed dozens of bodies piled up in the morgue at Jimani, many of them children and some caked with mud.
Rescue workers said more dead could be buried under the mud and debris.
"It has been a great tragedy," said Dominican President Mr Hipolito Mejia, who sent army doctors, medical supplies and food to shelters set up for people who lost their homes.
Power was cut in many areas, and crops were reported waterlogged. However, officials said it was too early to give estimates of damage.
The Dominican weather service said about 10 inches of rain fell in the last 24 hours in the Jimani area. - (Reuters)