Dominican Republic ? Dominican soldiers used dogs and shovels to search for flood victims Wednesday while U.S. and Canadian troops hurried to neighboring Haitian towns, trying to assess the full scope of a disaster that has killed more than 660 people and left hundreds missing.

Authorities told families there was no time to identify many of the bodies because they were badly decomposed and posed health risks if moved. Many bodies were dumped in a mass grave or buried by soldiers where they were found.

Survivors painted terrifying tales of sleeping families swept away in the floods Monday.

Leonardo Novas, a resident in the Dominican border town of Jimani, awoke to the screams of his infant son while water rose in his ramshackle wooden house. He quickly grabbed his wife and his son, and shouted to his brother next door to stay inside, but it was too late.

“Everything’s gone — my house and five family members,” said Novas, 28, who had watched helplessly as his brother and his family were carried away in a torrent of mud.

“I can’t find them,” he said. “I didn’t know they were burying them. They should let me find them first.”

More than 100 bodies were dumped in a mass grave outside the border town of Jimani, about 100 miles west of the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo.

Jimani is inhabited mostly by Haitian migrants who work as vendors and sugar cane cutters, trying to make a better life. Dominican officials said some of the Haitians who lost family members may have been living in the town illegally and scared to identify bodies.

Mudslides have prevented rescue teams from reaching parts of the two countries for days. Some 400 people were missing in the Dominican Republic and more than 160 were unaccounted for in Haiti.

In Haiti, the death toll soared with officials reporting that more than 250 corpses were recovered and an additional 158 were missing and feared dead in the border town of Fond Verrette, near Jimani.

“The river took everything, there isn’t anything left,” said Jermanie Vulsont in Fond Verrette, who said the rushing water swept away her five children early Monday.

Troops from a U.S.-led multinational force sent to stabilize Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted on Feb. 29 returned to Fond Verrette on Wednesday, ferrying supplies to about 3,000 desperate villagers and U.N. assessment teams.

A Haitian family cries over their lost relatives in Fond Verrette, Haiti. Mudslides have prevented rescue teams from reaching parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti for days, slowing efforts to reveal the full extent of the tragedy.