Sandy update: Haiti death toll reaches 54

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The director of Haiti's civil protection agency says the death toll from Hurricane Sandy is now 54. That means the toll for the Caribbean as a whole is 71.

   Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste says the government has been able to revise the death toll as rivers recede and officials are able to travel through the storm-drenched southern peninsula. The death toll had been 52. Jean-Baptiste said Wednesday that one of the new deaths occurred during a mudslide and the other was a person who drowned trying to cross a rain-swollen river. There are still 21 people unaccounted for after the storm.

   Hurricane Sandy drenched the country's south with more than 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain in 24 hours. President Michel Martelly has declared a monthlong state of emergency.