RIVERS ROSE TO dangerous levels in parts of Haiti yesterday even as Tropical Storm Emily broke apart after hitting the country and the southwestern corner of the Dominican Republic.

At least 50 homes were in danger of being flooded in the rice-farming village of L’Estere in Haiti’s Artibonite Valley.

A government worker asking people to leave, Max Obed Desir, said most refused because they wanted to protect their belongings in the remote region, where heavy rain already had been falling for weeks.

The US National Hurricane Center said all hurricane watches and warnings had been canceled but heavy rains were continuing to fall over the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Emily dropped more than 5 inches of rain around the southwestern Dominican city of Barahona, leading the government to order the evacuation of more than 5,000 people.

About 600,000 Haitians are still living in flimsy tents and shanties because of the January 2010 earthquake.

No deaths have been reported.

In the capital, which has most of those left homeless by the earthquake, government officials evacuated a few families from a camp for quake victims to a school.

There were also voluntary evacuations in the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince.

- AP