CRISIS IN THE CARIBBEAN : Scared Residents Take Flight in Port-au-Prince : Civilians: One woman killed in frantic efforts to flee capital city. People fear violence of invasion or retaliation by backers of ruling Haitian army.

Terrified by the possibility of a U.S. invasion or retaliation from supporters of the ruling army, Haitians flocked to bus stations throughout the capital Saturday to flee the city.

A woman carrying her year-old daughter dressed in a white Sunday dress was sprinting to catch an overcrowded bus that was pulling out. One man jumped onto the rear bumper with such force that he broke a tail light when the vehicle unexpectedly stopped.

Frantic flight turned to tragedy for one family when a truck lost its brakes and careened onto the sidewalk of a bus stop, killing a woman waiting to head north to the mountain village of St. Michel de l’Attalaye.

Her three sons clutched each other’s hands and wailed in grief after 60-year-old Mercianne Metor’s body was taken away.

“The Americans caused this! The Americans told us to leave,” cried Evans Metor, 35.

Genia Mireille-Alexandre, 34, sitting on an overstuffed bag of possessions while breastfeeding the youngest of her seven children as she waited for a bus, said she has no radio and does not know what specific threat faces her country.

“I saw a lot of people leave, so I’m leaving too,” she said, adding that she hoped to stay with relatives in the southwestern city of Les Cayes.

A 34-year-old pregnant woman sat waiting with her husband and three children, her tattered dress bunched up around her thighs. “I’m afraid my children will get hurt,” explained Mem Andre, also bound for Les Cayes.

Noel, 29, a typist and driver, stood for hours in the crowded parking area of an abandoned Shell station used as the bus station for the town of St. Marc.

“I’ve tried everything” to catch a bus north, said Noel, who wants to return to his village in the Artibonite Valley. With security agents around, he did not want to elaborate on his reasons for leaving.

But many in the crowd were young men like him who would be particularly at risk if military-backed gunmen came through poor neighborhoods seeking suspected supporters of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents of the Dominican border town of Dajabon are leaving or preparing to flee out of fear that a U.S. invasion of Haiti will trigger a refugee stampede.

“We’re leaving because we have children and we don’t want anything to happen to them,” Carmen Pena said as she prepared to depart.

Buses and trucks leaving town in the last few days have been crammed with women toting bags and children.

Tension has mounted along the 240-mile Haitian-Dominican border, which divides the island of Hispaniola, since President Clinton’s warning Thursday that U.S. forces will invade if Haiti’s military leaders did not step down.

Residents of Dajabon, a town of a few thousand people 190 miles northwest of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, fear that Haitians could rush the border. Others worry about bombing and shelling.

Military commanders said Saturday that there has been a slight swelling of the population of Ouanaminthe, a tiny Haitian town a mile across the border.

One Dominican military commander said Saturday that his soldiers will not allow Haitians to cross the border.