confirmed death toll and in neighboring Haiti climbed Saturday, May 29, to close to 1,000 because of huge flash floods following a devastating tropical storm that has been lashing the Caribbean for the past 10 days.
Mission Network News (MNN) reported a Food For The Hungry team had arrived in the Dominican town of Jimani where thousands of people are homeless amid fears of a possible outbreak of diseases.
"There were 13-thousand individuals and families that were homeless. They were looking for shelter, " official Tamera Dutch of Food For The Hungry told MNN.
"We are going to distribute food clothing and bedding items," she said. Threats of parasites from standing water dead bodies and a lack of shelter for residents is however adding to international concern that an increasing number of mosquitoes will spread diseases such as malaria and dengue fever especially among children in the area.
However MNN quoted Food For The Hungry’s Child Sponsorship Department as saying by "the kids they work with are safe," although it was not clear if any children would be evacuated from the region.
HAITI SUFFERING
In nearby southeastern Haiti more than 272 deaths have also were reported in and around the town of Mapou Belle-Anse and at least 100 in the Grand Gosier area, the French News Agency AFP said. Another 165 died in the hard-hit town of Fonds Verettes northeast of the capital, where the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) managed to bring in three tonnes of emergency food Wednesday.
The WFP said it was targeting a total of 300 tonnes of food for Fonds Verettes and other hard-hit regions, AFP reported. Yet between death and devastation, Dutch suggested that her aid workers were able to share the compassion of Christ, MNN reported.
"In the midst of doing all that, they witness our actions; because of the emergency and devastations, many of these people have lost all hope. That, in fact, is one of the best times to start preaching the Word," she told the network.
