hr, welcome to the boards. I am well aware of the number of deaths and destruction caused by Mitch. My point was that since then, I don't believe any Altantic storm (hurricane or TS) has killed as many as the unnamed system now spinning the fishes. As HF pointed out, rain and flooding can be very deadly, particularly in impoverished/hilly areas such as DR/Haiti & Nicaragua/Hondouras. It's just horrible what happened this past week. And as for Haiti, you really have to feel for the people. Most of them live in horrific poverty and have spent countless years under the oppresive reign of Aristide, who we finally got rid of this winter. I'll bet the death toll would have been even higher were it not for the presence of US troops (and their medical supplies & equipment), sent there to help reconstruct the country after Aristide's ouster.

Hopefully Hispaniola will be spared more drenching in the coming days...they certainly don't need any more rains...