Hurricane kills 12 in Saint Lucia, wipes out crops

CASTRIES, Saint Lucia — Hurricane Tomas has devastated the Caribbean paradise of Saint Lucia, killing at least 12 people and wiping out the tourist island's vital banana crop, officials said Tuesday.Prime Minister Stephenson King said whole sections of Saint Lucia's road network had completely disappeared in landslides and described scenes of utter mayhem in the cut-off main towns of Soufriere and Vieux Fort.Tomas, which struck Saint Lucia as a category one hurricane on Saturday packing winds of 150 kilometers (90 miles) per hour, has since weakened to a tropical storm but is expected to strengthen again and hit Haiti this weekend."We have 12 confirmed dead... unfortunately there are still people who are buried," Saint Lucia's Tourism Minister Allen Chastanet announced on local radio, warning the toll from the disaster was expected to rise.The island, which has a population of roughly 170,000, also faces a massive economic hit from the disaster -- officials said up to 100 million dollars -- as apart from tourism it is almost completely reliant on banana exports.Many communities on the island were still without power and cut off after Tomas downed trees, ripped the roofs of schools, a sports stadium and at least one hospital."From the air, the southern town of Vieux Fort appeared to have received the brunt of Tomas's fury," King said, adding that several people there were still unaccounted for."We will have to go into this area which was still blocked by landslides and virtually inaccessible to carry out a more detailed account of the damage," he said."Soufriere is devastated, everyone is locked in and no one can leave or get in by road or by phone, so that there are persons who need help but cannot be reached."The island nation, part of the Lesser Antilles in the east of the Caribbean Sea became independent from Britain in 1979 but although it now has its own government it still recognizes Queen Elizabeth II as head of Estate.Communications Minister Guy Joseph said the damage was "worse than we could thin

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