Toll Still Rising From Hurricane Noel

132 Confirmed Dead Across Caribbean; Hundreds Still Missing

(CBS/AP)  More rain pounded waterlogged Haiti, drenching a country still reeling after Tropical Storm Noel killed at least 48 people here and left thousands homeless.

Remnants of Noel, now a hurricane threatening the eastern United States and Canada, caused storms all day Friday. U.N. helicopters scheduled to assess the damage in hard-to-reach areas were grounded and fresh floods were reported on the country's southern peninsula.

"It looks like it's going to be horrible. People who live near rivers or in homes that are not in good shape need to move," said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of the country's civil protection department.

The lingering storm has prevented authorities from getting a complete death toll, Jean-Baptiste said.

"After the rain who knows how many more we will find," she said.

Rains let up in the neighboring Dominican Republic, however, allowing flights carrying urgently needed relief supplies. The country has confirmed 82 deaths from Noel.

The Haitian government, still struggling to rebuild after years of turmoil, has been almost entirely dependent on overtaxed international aid groups and a U.N. peacekeeping force to cope with the disaster.

With 14,000 people displaced by the storm, makeshift shelters are overwhelmed. Desperation has set in at schoolhouse shelters in volatile Cite Soleil, where thousands are sleeping on classroom floors and screaming at U.N. soldiers to take them back to their mud-filled houses.

"There is not enough food! I feel like I am in prison!" shouted Stefan Jean-Louie, 54, who said soldiers could not provide blankets for her nine children.

Noel passed Thursday over the Bahamas, where flooding killed one man and forced the evacuation of nearly 400 people. The storm then shifted north over the ocean and headed parallel to the U.S. Atlantic coast toward Nova Scotia.

Noel is the deadliest storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, with at least 132 dead. Forecasters say 2 to 4 inches of rain could fall in North Carolina's Outer Banks, while isolated areas of New England might see 6 inches.

Impoverished Haiti is particularly vulnerable to flooding because people have cut down most of the country's trees to make charcoal, leaving the hillsides barren and unable to absorb heavy rain.


The Dominican Republic is not as deforested but also suffers from severe flooding because of its steep mountains and large numbers of people who live in simple homes along its rivers.

CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports that on the Dominican half of the island, rescuers were still struggling to save hundreds of people from swollen rivers and waterlogged villages.

Rescuers took off in helicopters and boats to reach isolated residents for the first time in three days. Hundreds of volunteers joined Dominican civil defense forces to help stranded residents, as rescue teams left at dawn Thursday - many in boats loaned by private owners.

More than three days of heavy rain caused an estimated $30 million in damages to the Dominican Republic's rice, plantain and cacao plantations, said Minister of Economy Juan Temistocles Montas. Government officials will request loans from the Inter-American Development Bank to help with the recovery.

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez pledged aid to flood victims, and the government said it had distributed more than 3 million food rations in the hardest hit areas. The first plane to arrive with international donations departed from Panama, carrying 100,000 pounds of relief supplies.

U.S. Southern Command officials said Friday they would send rescue teams to Dominican Republic over the weekend. Two helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard have already been deployed.

The United States has contributed more than US$1 million in aid, including US$600,000 from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Aid also came from Dominicans like Joel Diaz, a 29-year-old who lives in the outskirts of the capital. "We're poor, but there are people today who don't have anything," he said as he donated clothes and canned food at an emergency management office.

Heavy downpours also continued to pound much of eastern Cuba on Friday, and state television reported that more than 30,000 people across the island had been evacuated because of rains associated with Noel. Most were staying with friends and neighbors, according to the military, which used trucks to move citizens to higher ground.

On Thursday, muddy rain-swollen waters overflowed a dam, washing into hundreds of homes, over highways and knocking out electricity and telephone service. Dozens of small communities were cut off.

Cuban soldiers went door-to-door in low-lying areas and evacuated about 24,000 people, according to state radio and television reports. At least 2,000 homes were damaged by flood waters, but there was no official word of deaths.

In Guantanamo province at Cuba's eastern tip, civil defense authorities warned of possible mudslides and reported that 60 percent of roads and highways were damaged or flooded. Electricity and phone service was spotty.

The government said more than 19,800 tons of vegetables had been destroyed by flood waters and 35,000 acres of farmland were submerged. Many small towns and villages were cut off, especially in mountains of the eastern province of Granma.

[toldyouso21]

It is surprising that America does not plan to invade Mexico to seize control of all the rain they have gotten instead of our dried up Southeast. After all, if we can go after Iraq due to OUR oil being under their sand, we certainly can go next door to get OUR rain back from Mexico. Another natural resource that by divine law is America''s--somehow being stolen by the people who actually live where that resource is. No doubt, we''ll fix them all--- yet.

[downtowner97]

We''re all just monkeys. Nothing more, and nothing less. Paint one toy with lead paint, and another with non-toxic enamel. Put those two toys on a shelf, and mothers are going to pick the one with lead paint because the colors are brighter. This color and brightness intoxication causes women to buy diamonds, too. Diamonds don''t cause lead poisoning, but they do cause enormous holes in the ground and slavery.

[squirley4]

Someone needs to help this creature snidegrass,and put him out of his misery!

[zootallures2]

so castro did the us govt.s bidding

Posted by snidegrass at 12:34 AM : Nov 02, 2007

You must be stoned out of your mind.

[tnt1954]

how the us govt. mostly ex-prohibition agent types,
got castro to overthrow mobsterism off their shores,
destroy gambling and dens of iniquity and try to
arrange law and order in a world of drunkenness
and car accidents and cruelty after world war 2
and korea. too many hale fellows well met, crashed
while on vodka on the rocks. and took their wives
and kids with them. so castro did the us govt.s
bidding, which is why he is still in power.
flour power. sober nations, prohibition now.
like mick jagger''s song in early stones-stoned
outta my mind. one of his best efforts.

[tnt1954]

step one in making rita cosby, queen of cuba.
noel redding slams into cuba knocks it out
for daring to oppose hendrixism in the 60''s.
they fought purple haze unwisely. see i told
you the worm would turn. noel redding played
bass, the drummer was mitch mitchell i think.
drummer are so easily found. the voodoo drums
sound at castro''s bedside, inviting him to
the land of all souls. he is to leave his
body, and fly to his eternal reward. he may not
like he gets. i guess he expects a big reward.
oftentimes people get the opposite of what they expect. which is why he expecteth nothing is
not disappointed. isn''t that sad that red guerillas
who have hassled everybody for years and years,
have suffered some losses. telling everyone
they are crazy to be normal. that poverty is
better than having a cot and three hots. destitution
is the purpose of life. course, cuba''s underground
installations are rather extravagant. topside
is kinda dull.

[slipster01]

Listen to this drivel...

"On Singer Island, Fla., there was huge beach erosion overnight where Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel demonstrated the extent on CBS News'' The Early Show.
"I had to use an extension ladder, a 20-foot extension ladder, to get up and down to the beach," Cantore (left) said. "It''s going to continue at the time of high tide probably for the next couple of high tide cycles.""

Did you see the picture in the article? THAT kind of erosion doesn''t even happen with a direct hit from a hurricane. These fear-mongering environmental whackoes are trying to make viewers believe that 20 feet of erosion happened from a NEAR MISS hurricane? During one of the calmest hurricane seasons in 30 YEARS? That most likely is from years of weathering and improper building and removal of the sea grasses that held it in place, NOT A NEAR MISS!


Give me a break.

[seafang]

It''s a Tropical Storm for heaven''s sake; not a category five hurricane. I came back from Catalina Island in Santa ana winds that were stronger than Noel while SoCal was burning down (or up).
The alphabet soups have been trying to get Noel to a cat 5 (maybe (6) and have it go up and wipe out the Eastern USA. Sorry, this is the second hurricane season in a row where the global warming maxi-storms have failed to meet the "concensus" promises.

Hurricanes are natures way of cooling the planet; got it? And if people didn''t build in their well known paths they wouldn''t be any big deal.

[noview1]

Not only have we not had any hurricanes, we''ve been lucky enough not to have any rain in the southeast or california.

[wjbair]

The damage to the beaches pictured in this article are the result of may years of beach erosion. It is not about this storm, per se.

[hawksprings]

It''s notta hurricane.
2007 will go down in history as the quietest hurricane season in over 30 years. And 2006 was almost as quiet. Even after they started including sub-tropical storms in the count to make it seem worse.
This after dire predictions that because of Human Caused Global Warming we will have the worst Hurricane seasons on record.
I wonder what else about Human Caused Global Warming that The Consensus will be wrong on...

[erichsh]

Actually, the 2007 hurricane season is going down as one of the quietest on record. Last year was a dud, too. A far cry from Gore''s screaming about all these massive hurricanes we were supposed to get with a picture of Katrina behind him. Whatever happened to those global warming alarmists and their predictions about increased hurricane activity anyway?