AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 24, SPA-- At least 11 people were killed in Haiti when record-breaking Tropical Storm Alpha brought torrential rain to the impoverished Caribbean country, officials and witnesses said on Monday, according to Reuters. The director of Haiti's Civil Protection Office, Alta Jean-Baptiste, said 8 people were killed on Sunday across the country. Another three people were carried away by floodwaters that suddenly roared through the dry bed of the Riviere Froide river in the neighborhood of Ka Louijeune, in the Carrefour district just outside of Port-au-Prince. Alpha formed in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday as the 22nd named tropical cyclone of the Atlantic season, breaking the record set in 1933 and making 2005 the most active hurricane season since records began 150 years ago. Forecasters said the storm dumped as much as 15 inches (38 cm) of rain over some parts of Hispaniola, the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is particularly vulnerable to floods and mudslides because much of the impoverished country has been stripped of trees by dirt-poor farmers and slum dwellers whose main source of fuel is charcoal.
