The official number from the Dominican government was 201 dead yesterday, but eyewitness accounts and relief agency reports from areas yet to be reached by government officials indicate that at least dozens more have been killed.

In many communities wiped out by floods, residents continued searching through mud and debris for the missing.

``The final death toll is almost certain to exceed 500,'' said a statement issued by the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Response.

The Dominican Republic, on the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, has been the country hardest hit so far by Georges.

In addition to the deaths, damage to the nation's infrastructure and agriculture alone from Hurricane Georges will surpass 1.2 billion dollars, not including losses by industry andbusinesses, said Temistocles Montas, aide to President Leonel Fernandez.

With many areas flooded and roads impassable, US aid assistant administrator Hugh Parmer said flights would to carry relief supplies to all parts of the country.

A delegation of six members of the US Congress arrived in Puerto Rico and planned to continue on to the Dominican Republic to survey the damage.

In Puerto Rico, electricity was restored to more than a quarter of the power authority's customers and most of the San Juan metropolitan area had water service, officials said.