Over 100 killed after floods sweep Dominican town

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Floods unleashed by torrential rains swept through a Dominican Republic farming town, killing about 100 people and leaving dozens missing, an official said Monday.

Bodies caked with mud were piled in a hospital’s makeshift morgue in the western town of Jimani near the Haitian border. A reporter for The Associated Press estimated there were about 100 bodies.

Officials said about 150 others were missing since a river flooded a town neighborhood early Monday. Only mud with hunks of lumber sticking out and a trail of clothes remain where dozens of houses once stood.

“They found my daughter. Now I have to see if I have some family left,” said Elena Diaz, 42, sobbing in a long line outside the morgue where she went to look for her son-in-law and three grandchildren. She said her daughter’s house was destroyed.

The raging water carried some victims away. Bodies were found up to 6 miles downstream, said Maximo Noves Espinal, an emergency official in the town.

“We’re recovering bodies; we’ll be at it all night,” Noves Espinal said.