HAITIAN DEVASTATION

While Cuba managed to evacuate thousands of people to safe areas, nearby Haiti -- where officials said the death toll may never be known -- was wholly unprepared for three days of lashing rains that mostly killed poor people who lived in Port-au-Prince shacks, TIME correspondent Bernard Diederich reports. Many unrecovered bodies elsewhere in Haiti are still buried under tons of mud, despite efforts of U.S. soldiers-turned-rescue workers. "Everyone has a tragic tale to tell," one businessman told Diederich. "They were all swept away." Culture Minister Jean-Claude Bajeux said: "It's shameful and a tragedy that 37 years of dictatorship destroyed our institutions and there was no way we could alert the people to what was coming."Post your opinion on theInternationalbulletin board.