Reuters North American News Service, November 1st, 2007
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - The Dominican Republic
appealed for international help to cope with devastating floods
from Tropical Storm Noel that killed at least 56 in the
country, while troops rushed Thursday to evacuate people
living under dams that the authorities feared could overflow.
President Leonel Fernandez, who declared a state of
emergency Wednesday night, asked multinational financial
institutions to lend the country $200 million to rebuild torn
roads, collapsed bridges and a ravaged electrical network.
Fernandez also ordered the military to evacuate families
living in the possible path of floodwaters from brimming
reservoirs at the Hatillo and Sabana Yegua dams in the south of
the Caribbean country of around 8 million people.
"Weather conditions appear to be improving and we plan to
take advantage of this to relocate the people living in the
shadow of the dams and who are in a position of great
vulnerability," said the head of the Civil Defense force, Luis
Luna Paulino.
As of Wednesday night, 56 deaths had been confirmed and 27
other people were missing after chest-high floodwaters surged
across large swathes of the country, sweeping away thousands of
houses and leaving at least 50,000 people homeless.
Separately, authorities in Haiti, which shares the
Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic,
said the storm had taken 34 lives there.
The worst incident appeared to have occurred in the village
of Villa Altagracia, outside the Dominican capital Santo
Domingo, where two rivers broke their banks and destroyed most
of the community of 200 or so houses. Survivors said up to 35
bodies were seen strewn on the river banks there.
The floods triggered by days of unrelenting rain from
Tropical Storm Noel, which was located southeast of Miami on
Thursday, also destroyed acres of farmland.
Dominican Public Works Minister Victor Diaz said the
physical damage, including collapsed bridges, amounted to at
least $32 million so far.
The Ministry of Agriculture said it would take a bit longer
to evaluate the damage to farms because more than 50
communities remained cut off.
President Fernandez appealed to other countries to send
helicopters to help the Dominican Republic rescue people
stranded in isolated villages.
"We are in a state of emergency and all of the resources of
the state will be assigned to those responsible for rescue
operations," Fernandez said.
Schools would be closed until Monday, officials in the
Education Ministry said.
