Tropical storm Emily kills 1 in Haiti, 3 in DR

The tropical storm that brushed the southern coast of Hispaniola killed one person in Haiti and three in the Dominican Republic, but spared the Caribbean nations the severe damage many feared, officials said.Tropical Storm Emily threatened to soak more than 600,000 Haitians made homeless after last years earthquake but the tempest merely skirted the southern coast before it stalled at sea and dissipated.More than 100 people left their crudely built homes to find safer housing in churches, schools and other building as the storm moved west. There were scattered reports of flooded houses and crops.There was some damage in the neighboring Dominican Republic, where 7,000 people were displaced by floods and three people died, Dominican authorities said.The Emergency Operations Centre said the bodies of two men, ages 19 and 20, were pulled from a river near the town of Higuey, 100 miles (160 kilometres) east of Santo Domingo. A 23-year-old man died after falling through a drain in Santo Domingo province.Rain also triggered landslides that affected a dozen homes on the banks of the Ozama River, which separates the capital from the Santo Domingo province.In Haiti, one person died. Government workers found a body at the bottom of a ravine in the southwestern coastal city of Les Cayes, an official with Haitis Civil Protection Department said. One person was injured in the southeastern coastal village of Cayes-Jacmel after a tree fell.