DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: RESCUE WORKERS RECOVER MORE THAN 1000 BODIES FROM FLOOD-DEVASTATED JIMANI.
Record ID:
648312
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: RESCUE WORKERS RECOVER MORE THAN 1000 BODIES FROM FLOOD-DEVASTATED JIMANI.
- Title: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: RESCUE WORKERS RECOVER MORE THAN 1000 BODIES FROM FLOOD-DEVASTATED JIMANI.
- Date: 27th May 2004
- Summary: JIMANI, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (MAY 26, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. AV: AERIALS OF BODIES FLOATING IN LAKE, TRUCK (4 SHOTS) 0.15 2. GV/MV/CU: SOLDIERS BOARDING TRUCK; SOLDIERS SETTING UP TENTS; SOLDIERS COORDINATING WITH RELIEF WORKERS (6 SHOTS) 0.38 3. GV/PAN; TRUCK ARRIVING WITH MATTRESSES 0.43 4. GV: STREET SCENE 0.47 5. GV: EMERGENCY SERVICE TRUCK 0.50 6. MCU: EMERGENCY WORKER TENDING TO CHILD 0.54 7. GV/GV/PAN: TRUCK DELIVERING AID; UN VEHICLE; TRUCK DELIVERING AID; RELIEF WORKERS DELIVERING BOTTLED WATER (5 SHOTS) 1.19 8. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED AID WORKER SAYING: "At this time we can truly say that the eyes of the world are looking towards Jimani. There has been participation by all organizations related to the UN and other organizations like World Vision and Oxfam who are all putting forth all of their efforts to reestablish basic services." 1.51 9. MV/PAN: RED CROSS WORKERS BOARDING BUS 1.56 10. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ANOTHER UNIDENTIFIED EMERGENCY WORKER SAYING: "What has happened here is very big. What people have seen on TV is nothing compared to what's actually here because the town seems to have been completely swept away." 2.05 11. MV/CU: VARIOUS OF RESIDENTS GATHERED TO RECEIVE AID (2 SHOTS) 2.12 12. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED RESIDENT OF AREA SAYING: "They (emergency workers) are giving out food, water and mattresses." 2.19 13. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ANOTHER UNIDENTIFIED RESIDENT OF AREA SAYING: "Those of us who were towards the back didn't receive anything." 2.28 14. GV: RESIDENTS GATHERED FOR AID 2.31 15. VARIOUS: DEBRIS STREWN ABOUT; BULLDOZER CLEARING AWAY MUD; RESIDENTS CLEARING AWAY MUD (6 SHOTS) 2.57 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th June 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JIMANI, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
- Country: Dominican Republic
- Reuters ID: LVAEDCSM8GC1A4EZWC52SM9EPOET
- Story Text: Emergeny relief continues pouring into Dominican
Republic town devastated by floods as rescue workers
recover more than a thousand bodies.
The death toll from devastating floods and
landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic rose to at
least 1,950 on Wednesday (May 26) with the discovery of
more than 1,000 bodies in a Haitian town.
The toll rose dramatically when the bodies were found
in Mapou, a rural southeastern Haitian town where
communications are poor, said Margareth Martin, the head of
the civil protection office for Haiti's Southeast region.
Rescue workers dug through mud and debris for bodies
three days after torrential rains sent rivers of mud and
swirling waters through Hispaniola, the Caribbean island
shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
One of the people working to help the people in the
area said: "What has happened here is very big. What
people have seen on TV is nothing compared to what's
actually here because the town seems to have been
completely swept away."
Authorities in the neighboring Dominican Republic said
they had recovered 300 bodies, mostly from the disaster in
Jimani near the Haitian border, where a river overflowed
its banks before dawn and swept homes away as people slept.
"At this time we can truly say that the eyes of the
world are looking towards Jimani. There has been
participation by all organizations related to the UN and
other organizations like World Vision and Oxfam who are all
putting forth all of their efforts to reestablish basic
services," said one of the rescue workers.
The floodwaters flattened fields of crops and ripped
apart crude shacks fashioned from sticks and sheets of
iron. Residents pulled furniture and other belongings from
the streets, where they had been swept by the flood, and
assembled mud-caked possessions in stacks along the sides
of the roads.
Dominican Republic's President Hipolito Mejia declared
a day of national mourning for Thursday.
In the devastated Dominican town of Jimani, bodies were
taken from the mud and from Lago Enriquillo, a lake where
they had been swept by the raging waters. Corpses were
found crushed against walls, clinging to tree trunks and
buried in the mud.
Dogs trained to sniff out bodies were sent to join the
recovery effort. Relief workers wore surgical masks against
the stench of decomposing flesh and hauled bodies on
stretchers, while rescuers hacked through the rubble of
stick shacks with hatchets searching for corpses.
Many were buried in mass common graves. Authorities
worried about diseases breaking out if bodies were left
unburied. Bulldozers dug holes to bury others where they
were found, in ground where buildings stood a few days ago.
Several hundred people were also still missing.
Survivors in Jimani said the flood waters reached 15
feet (3 metres) high.
The Dominican Republic, a country of 8.5 million
people, is more prosperous than its neighbour but still has
areas of deep poverty.
Relief workers and supplies of medicines, food,
blankets were pouring into the Jimani area. Army tents
sprang up to shelter dozens of Dominican soldiers sent to
help with relief efforts. A stream of helicopters flew in
from the capital and trucks ferried wood to rebuild homes.
A fire truck was used to clean mud from the local hospital.
The European Union was preparing a package worth 2
million euros ($2.43 million) for flood victims, the
European Commission said in Brussels. The United States
announced it was giving $50,000 dollars to help the relief
effort and was sending two disaster experts to evaluate the
damage. Japan also said it was giving $100,000 in emergency
aid.
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