KINGSTON, Jamaica � Searchers scoured muddy rivers and debris-clogged gullies for more victims of Tropical Storm Nicole on Thursday as the death toll in Jamaica from floods and mudslides rose to five, officials said.
Rain continued to fall on the capital, Kingston, and emergency workers were trying to locate at least 14 more missing people, about half of whom were believed to have been swept away in landslides that roared through a Kingston shantytown. Officials warned the death toll was certain to rise as they rushed to confirm several reports of storm fatalities.
"As we go through the day, the numbers will be going up, I'm sure," said Richard Thompson, deputy director-general of Jamaica's disaster management office.
The latest death toll included two construction workers who died early Thursday when a shack in an upscale neighborhood in the hills above Kingston collapsed in a landslide triggered by rains on saturated ground, Thompson said. The laborers were sleeping in the shack to save money while working on a client's house.
The storm broke apart over the Atlantic late Wednesday afternoon, but intermittent rains increased the risk of additional slides across the island. Schools and universities stayed closed for a second day, while about 30 percent of those served by Jamaica's utility company were without power, officials said.
Broken mains and clogged pipes left tens of thousands of people without water service, and residents were increasingly frustrated by long lines for basic necessities. Some bridges had collapsed, complicating relief efforts.
One landslide toppled a concrete shack and killed a 14-year-old boy, known to his neighbors as Buju, who was found in a pool of muddy water. Rescuers had not yet found the rest of his family, which neighbors said included four sisters, the youngest just 3.
Some neighbors who gathered near the destroyed house in Sandy Gully said the family was surely dead and voiced frustration that emergency personnel had not yet found their bodies, which they speculated were tangled in the rubble.
The shantytowns are built on unstable banks of gullies where thousands live illegally due to a lack of affordable housing. Authorities were keeping an eye on the murky brown waters that overflowed from the gullies, saying they could still pose a threat to residents.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding told reporters that his government will seek to identify affordable housing options for the thousands of poor islanders who risk their lives by illegally building ramshackle homes along the paved gullies and other dangerous areas.
"What we are going to have to do is see how we can identify solutions that are within their affordability and work out an arrangement with them over time as to how they are going to pay for it. Once we do that then we enforce as vigorously as possible the 'no build rule,'" he said.
A recent government survey indicated there are nearly 600 informal settlements islandwide, with about 16 percent of the total in Kingston and abutting St. Andrew parish.
Early Thursday, roads were rendered impassable in St. Thomas parish, where cultivated fields of bananas, scotch bonnet peppers, and scallions were flattened by floodwaters.
"Clearly the fields are very waterlogged and it is going to create a setback for the farmers, many of whom are actually planting now or have just planted," Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton said.
While many islanders focused on removing debris and mopping up the water in their homes, others worried about two new tropical waves developing over the Atlantic. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said there was a fair chance the waves could merge and develop into a tropical depression in the next couple of days, though the path of the storm is still unclear.
"I hope this is the end of it," said Kingston resident Christopher Brown, who was walking along a busy street to his job at a construction site. "It feels like we're a punching bag � a big wet punching bag."
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