DOMINICAN REPUBLIC/CUBA: Tropical Storm Noel hits Dominican Republic and Cuba, leaving at least 13 dead

More than 13 people have died and hundreds of families are homeless after Tropical Storm Noel ravaged the Dominican Republic. The storm also dumped significant rain on Cuba. At least 13 people died and as many as 2,000 people were homeless after Tropical Storm Noel hit the Dominican Republic. Between 10 and 30 inches (25 cm to 51 cm) of rain fell on the Dominican Republic before the storm weakened as it moved across northeastern Cuba on Tuesday (October 30). In San Cristobal the Yuboa River overflowed its banks flooding houses on either side of the river and blocking bridges with a torrent of raging water. Dramatic video showed unsuccessful attempts to rescue a nine-year-old boy swimming in the swollen River Nigua. Alexander Martinez jumped in to rescue the child but the river currents were too strong. "I wasn't able to save him," Martinez said. "We were too late. The current dragged me to the other shore and he was on the other side," he added. The fourteenth named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season dumped torrential rain on the island of Hispaniola, cutting off communities and grounding flights. The Dominican National Emergency Committee declared a red alert in six provinces and for the capital, Santo Domingo. In the capital's poor neighbourhood of La Cienaga, flood victims tried to recover their possessions. Gertrudis Jones said she stayed awake all night, listening to the windy storm threatening her house. "We've been awake since one in the morning so the children wouldn't drown, with no food, with nothing here," Jones said. In Bani, 55 miles (90 km) north of Santo Domingo, at least five people were killed by floods while a few others were listed as missing, local officials said. In Villa Altagracia, rescue workers dug up the body of a drowned young boy, about 4 years old. Elsewhere in the country, there were reports of a family buried when their house collapsed on them and another of a family in a car killed by a falling wall. Torrential rains also drenched the eastern Cuba province of Guantanamo, where double the average rainfall in October had reservoirs already filled to the brim and authorities worried about flooding. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages. The storm passed by the west-northwest city of Holguin in the early morning and its maximum sustained winds had dropped to 50 miles per hour (85 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Cuba evacuated about 10,000 people from inland areas threatened by floods and mudslides or rivers that could burst their banks. The evacuees included 3,000 students picking coffee in the hills of Santiago province. Tourists at coastal resorts were not affected. Animals were shepherded to safety in the cattle-growing province of Las Tunas where agricultural workers boxed up bananas to protect them from the storm. Computer models showed Noel heading northwest toward Florida but making a sharp turn at some point to the northeast and swirling out over the Bahamas into the Atlantic. Noel was not expected to strengthen significantly because of unfavourable wind conditions in the atmosphere. The Miami-based centre said Noel would stay over land in Cuba longer than initially expected, reducing the chances it could briefly become a minimal hurricane on its closest approach to southeast Florida. The six-month hurricane season runs until the end of November. While the 14 storms so far this year are more than normal, it has been a far cry from the record-busting 2005 season, when 28 storms formed and several fierce hurricanes, including Katrina, slammed into the United States.

ITN Source | October 31, 2007

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