Hispaniola death toll hits 660

FOND VERRETTES, Haiti - Ferrying emergency supplies to villagers devastated in deadly floods, U.S. and Canadian troops on Wednesday struggled to assess the scope of a disaster that has killed more than 660 people and left hundreds missing in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Dominican authorities told families 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.

At least 417 bodies have been recovered in the Dominican Republic and 250 in Haiti. The death toll has been high because the border area is largely deforested, allowing flash floods carrying mud and debris to sweep away flimsy homes of wood and tin.

Survivors painted terrifying tales of sleeping families carried away in Monday's floods, which devastated parts of the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by the two countries.

Troops from a U.S.-led multinational force sent to stabilize Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted on Feb. 29 flew by helicopters to the town of Fond Verrettes, bringing food and water to thousands of desperate Haitians.

The body of a 5-year-old boy was among many recovered Wednesday in Fond Verrettes, about 35 miles southeast of Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince. The death toll was expected to rise.

But mudslides have prevented rescue teams from reaching many parts of the two countries. Some 400 people were still missing in the Dominican Republic and more than 160 were unaccounted for in Haiti.

The rains saturated Fond Verrettes, prompting mudslides and landslides from an adjacent hill to cover most of the town. On Wednesday, it looked like a pocked riverbed with stunned residents wandering around and asking troops for help.

"For a while we didn't even realize what we were standing on," said U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Collins, 21, of Avon, Ill., one of about 20 Marines who went to help feed villagers. "We were standing on some parts of a neighborhood. It's clear they need more food and water."

Workers recovered about 100 corpses in southern Haitian towns of Grand Gosier and 100 more in the neighboring town of Mopou, said Haiti's civil protection director, Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste. Fifty corpses were found elsewhere across the country.

Help has not yet been able to reach Mopou and more than 150 are reportedly injured and without health care, the Haitian government said.

More than 150 corpses were buried where they were found in Jimani on Wednesday. A hundred or so were buried in a mass grave Tuesday.

Jimani, about 100 miles east of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, is inhabited mostly by Haitian migrants who work as vendors and sugar cane cutters. Dominican officials said some of the Haitians who lost family members may have been living in the town illegally and scared to identify bodies.

The Dominican government declared Jimani a disaster area, and President Hipolito Mejia said today will be a national day of mourning.

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