U.S. Aids Haiti, Dominican Republic

The United States on Wednesday announced aid totaling $47 million to Haiti and the Dominican Republic to help them recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Georges last week.

Brian Atwood, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told reporters after meeting President Leonel Fernandez that $35 million would go to the Dominican Republic and the rest to Haiti, its neighbor on the island of Hispaniola.

Hurricane Georges hit the two countries last Tuesday, causing widespread damage.

It left at least 200 people dead in the Dominican Republic and 250,000 homeless out of a population of 8 million. Damage is estimated at more than $2 billion. In Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas with 7 million people, 147 people are known to have died and nearly 170,000 were left homeless.

The U.S. Agriculture Department will give more than 100,000 tons of flour to be sold to local Dominican millers, said Atwood, who was accompanied by a delegation of U.S. congressional members.

Washington will also provide funds to keep three C-130 planes flying between the Dominican Republic and New York, and to keep Dominican military helicopters operating to ferry relief supplies to isolated communities.