PORT-AU-PRINCE–Up to 50 people died in Haiti yesterday when a bus tried to cross a river swollen with rain from Tropical Storm Fay and was swept away, witnesses said.
Two-dozen survivors were pulled out of the raging waters of the Rivière Glace in the southwestern province of Grand-Anse, said Mayor Oreste André of the town of Bomont, where the accident occurred.
"The river swept them away as if they were driftwood," André said by telephone. He said the people who were rescued survived by climbing onto the roof of the sunken bus. The dead were trapped inside.
Thema Laurent, a witness, said a child was among the survivors but a dozen children failed to make it out.
There were 80 or more people on the bus headed to Jérémie, the largest city in Grand-Anse, André said.
On Saturday, the tropical storm was blamed for four deaths in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic. A couple drowned in Kingston, Jamaica, when their car was caught in a flooded crossing.
The storm was expected to make landfall in Cuba early this morning and threatened to reach hurricane strength and possibly hit the Florida Keys tonight.
