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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Tropical Storm Jeanne wreaks havoc |
| 2004-09-17 |
Fri 17 September, 2004 23:06 By Manuel Jimenez SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters) - Residents of a town climbed onto rooftops and into trees to escape floods from Tropical Storm Jeanne, which has killed five people, swept away houses and forced 22,000 people to flee their homes in the Dominican Republic. Jeanne, which also killed two people and caused flooding in the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico earlier this week, has moved over northern Dominican Republic since Thursday, and could hit the United States next week. Torrential rains swelled rivers and flooded low-lying areas, cutting off 1,500 residents of the eastern town of Ramon Santana when a river burst its banks. Military helicopters sent to the town could not land but crews saw people on top of roofs and clinging to trees, said officials in the capital, Santo Domingo. Navy launches would be sent to rescue them, said Civil Defence Director Luis Luna Paulino. Some 200 homes were swept away in Salcedo, north of Santo Domingo, when a river burst its banks. People living in low lying areas of the town had been evacuated, but an unknown number of people were missing, officials said. Flooding and mudslides cut off several other towns and villages in the northeast, including in the Samana peninsula, where high winds ripped the roofs off beach hotels. Tourism is crucial to the Dominican Republic's economy. "There are many hotels without roofs and with trees on the ground," said Enrique Jacque, owner of La Tortuga hotel in Las Terrenas. "All our rooms were damaged." Three people, including a man crushed under a falling tree, were killed on Friday in the storm, taking the death toll from Jeanne to five. Two people, including a 3-month-old crushed in a mudslide in Santo Domingo, were killed on Thursday. The storm destroyed at least 100 homes and felled trees and power lines in northeastern areas on Thursday. Emergency officials said some 22,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying parts of the country of nearly 9 million people. Forecasters said the storm could dump up to 13 inches (33 cm) of rain. Jeanne's top winds had weakened to 50 mph (80 kph) as it moved over land, but it was briefly at hurricane strength with winds of 75 mph (120 kph) on Thursday. It could strengthen again when it moves out to sea from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, forecasters said. At 2 p.m. EDT (7:00 p.m. British time), the storm's centre was moving off Hispaniola, heading west-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph). It was on a course that would carry it over or near the southeastern Bahamas during the weekend, said the U.S. National Hurricane Centre. FLORIDA, AGAIN? Flooding in May caused by torrential rains in central Hispaniola killed some 1,800 people in Haiti and 350 in the Dominican Republic. Haiti has been largely deforested and is vulnerable to deadly flash floods and mudslides. Residents on the north coast of Haiti, a poor nation of 8 million, were keeping a wary eye on the storm, although it was not expected to hit Haiti directly. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola. The longer term forecast, which has a wide margin of error, had the storm looping up clear of the northern Bahamas and then veering west toward the eastern United States. Jeanne could hit the northeast coast of Florida as a hurricane by next Wednesday. The state has already been hit by three hurricanes: Charley on August 13, Frances on September 4 and Ivan on Thursday. Karl, the 11th named tropical storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season, was churning west-northwest through the Atlantic, far from any land. The hurricane centre said Karl would turn into a hurricane and veer north next week, clear of the Caribbean or the United States. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |