DORAL, FL U.S. Southern Command dispatched a 10-person emergency relief team today from its New Horizons-Panama base camp in Rambala, Panama to assist 5,000 Panamanian citizens affected by a six-month drought at Colon Island, located in the province of Bocas del Toro.

The team, consisting of desalination equipment operators and support personnel, will deliver a reverse-osmosis water purification unit capable of purifying 600 gallons of salt water per hour. The purification unit will pump purified water into a 200,000-gallon cistern to meet the emergency needs of the island's population.

BOCAS DEL TORO (WHN) Lack of rainfall during the past three weeks has resulted in a severe water shortage for the town of Bocas del Toro. Water is generally available from Bocas town municipal supplies from 9:30 until 11 in the morning. Many hotels and restaurants report a complete lack of water and have been forced to use plastic plates and utensils to avoid having to wash dishes. The water shortage is having a negative effect on tourism resulting in relatively empty restaurants and hotels in what was hoped to be the high tourist season.

BOCAS DEL TORO (WTW) Renowned writer and entrepeneur Scott Doggett is enroute to Bocas del Toro once again. He will be in town working on a new travel project called WhozHereNow.

MIRAMAR, PANAMA (AP) A U.S. Army reservist died and two others were injured on Thursday in a traffic wreck near the Caribbean coastal province of Bocas del Toro, emergency personnel reported. The reservists were traveling in a Humvee on a local road when the vehicle was involved in a wreck with a heavy truck near the town of Miramar, about 300 miles west of the capital. The Humvee was flipped by the force of the impact. U.S. Embassy personnel were not available to provide information on the reservist's name, hometown and unit. "I understand that he (the dead man) was a sergeant, less than 30 y

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA (AP) An American tourist who watched as a U.S. military veteran in his 70s used his bare hands to kill an armed assailant in Costa Rica said she thought the attempted robbery was a joke until the masked attacker held a gun to her head. "I thought it was a skit. But then he pointed the gun at my head and grabbed me by the throat and I thought I was going to die," Clova Adams, 54, told The Associated Press by telephone Friday from the Carnival cruise ship Liberty.