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Hurricane Tomas Brings Flooding to Haiti


A man carries a child while wading across a flooded street during the passing of Hurricane Tomas in Leogane, Haiti, 05 Nov 2010
A man carries a child while wading across a flooded street during the passing of Hurricane Tomas in Leogane, Haiti, 05 Nov 2010

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says deadly Hurricane Tomas has weakened into a tropical storm as it passed over the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The center says tropical storm warnings for Haiti and the Dominican Republic will "likely be lowered" sometime Saturday morning.

The weather forecasters say in addition to the Turks and Caicos, storm warnings are in effect for the southeastern Bahamas and the northern coast of the Dominican Republic.

The forecasters predict Tomas will produce large and destructive waves along the coasts of Turks and Caicos.

The hurricane center says Tropical Storm Tomas has maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour.

Haitian officials say before Tomas weakened into a tropical storm, hurricane rains triggered flooding and mudslides that killed at least six people.

But aid officials also say the storm has not affected Haiti as badly as they feared.

The rains caused flooding in many areas in Haiti, including the camps housing hundreds of thousands of people displaced by January's earthquake.

The U.S. State Department says the Haitian government reports that 50 percent of the people in the camps left before the worst of the storm hit.

January's massive earthquake displaced more than one million people.

U.N. health officials warned that polluted floodwaters and unsanitary conditions could worsen Haiti's cholera outbreak, which already has killed more than 440 people.

The U.S. Navy has sent the USS Iwo Jima to Haiti to help provide humanitarian support. The ship carries medical experts, engineers and helicopters.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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