Haiti receives aid

Foreign military helicopters shuttled tons of food and drinking water to flood-devastated Haitian towns yesterday, the only lifeline for thousands of homeless people cut off from the world.

With roads to the stricken areas impassable in many places, helicopters have been the only way to reach survivors of flooding that killed an estimated 2,000 people on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

As many as 1,000 of the dead were in the southeastern Haitian town of Mapou that was engulfed by the floods, officials say. The town of several thousand people is only about 40 km southeast of the capital, but roads were damaged by the torrents of mud and water that swept down hillsides five days ago.

A US-led multinational force, sent to the impoverished country three months ago to help restore order after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by a bloody revolt, has turned to relief work after the worst natural disaster to hit Haiti in a decade.

The death toll in Haiti stood at about 1,800, while about 350 people were killed in the Dominican Republic, most in the border town of Jimani. Aid workers and officials have said the toll could rise as more bodies are found in the mud and debris.

The flooding ravaged the crops and livestock of poor farmers who scratch out a living and piled misery onto already desperate conditions in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. Average per capita annual income for Haiti's 8 million people is about $300.

The World Food Programme was already running a programme to feed some 140,000 people after months of civil unrest in Haiti.