Death Toll Rises To 60 As Tropical Storm Noel Heads To The Bahamas

Wednesday, October 31st 2007, 7:13 am

By: News On 6

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) _ The tail end of Tropical Storm Noel triggered mudslides and floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti as the death toll rose to 60 on Wednesday _ deadlier than all but one Atlantic hurricane this season.

The slow-moving storm lurched out of Cuba and stalled over the Atlantic, but was projected to skirt Florida and batter the Bahamas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

With rain still falling two days after the storm hit, rescuers were struggling to reach communities cut off by flooding on the island of Hispaniola. As they did, they found a rising toll of death and damage _ at least 41 dead in the Dominican Republic, 18 in Haiti and one in Jamaica.

At least 50,500 Dominicans fled their homes, 12,000 of which were damaged, said Luis Antonio Luna, head of the Emergencies Commission. Flooding also forced the evacuation of about 1,000 prisoners from a prison north of the Dominican capital.

Luna said officials were trying to reach dozens of isolated communities, but bad weather, a lack of helicopters and damage to bridges and highways slowed rescue efforts.

Monica Segura, 28, and her family abandoned their riverside home Tuesday when water rushed in. They fled with some 200 other people to a sports complex in the Dominican town of Barahona.

``I don't even know how I'm alive,'' she said. ``I lost everything. The only thing that I could save was the clothes I was wearing.''

In neighboring Haiti, floods rushed through houses in the Cite Soleil slum, carrying away a 3-year-old boy as relatives frantically shouted for help and tried unsuccessfully to reach him through the muddy, debris-filled water.

Two people were killed when their house collapsed in a mudslide in the hillside suburb of Petionville, and at least three others died in Jacmel, where officials said 150 people were trapped on rooftops awaiting aid.

Some Haitian shelters were overwhelmed by evacuees. One in Cite Soleil, guarded by U.N. troops, had one blanket for every two people.

Noel is the deadliest Caribbean storm since Tropical Storm Jeanne hit Haiti in 2004, killing 1,500 people and triggering widespread flooding and mudslides before it became a hurricane. An additional 900 people were reported missing and presumed dead.

This year's deadliest hurricane, Category 5 Felix, killed at least 101 people in September, mostly along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras.

At 2 p.m. EDT, Noel was centered just north of Cuba's Cayo Santa Maria and about 190 miles south-southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas. Forecasters said it was almost stationary but would likely curve north later in the day. It had sustained winds of near 50 mph, up from 40 mph earlier in the day.

Eastern Cuba got soaked but apparently escaped major damage. It also was raining in the Bahamas, where authorities closed most government offices and lines formed at grocery stores and gas stations in Nassau, the capital.

Rough surf warnings were in effect for much of South Florida. Waves were pounding beaches in the Miami area, and residents of a waterfront condominium in South Palm Beach were urged to evacuate after the surf destroyed a retaining wall damaged by another storm.

Forecasters said the rain would likely miss drought-stricken Georgia, Alabama and other southeastern states.