Tropical Storm Jeanne tore through the Dominican Republic on Friday with fierce winds that triggered mudslides and forced evacuations before it weakened to a tropical depression and crept toward the Bahamas. Seven were killed across the Caribbean.
Two people died on Friday in the Dominican Republic. One man was killed by a falling palm tree. Another was having a heart attack and couldn't get to a hospital because of the storm, according to Juan Luis German of the National Emergency Committee.
Both deaths occurred northeast of Santo Domingo, which was saturated by the storm on Thursday and where an infant died when a landslide crushed part of her family's house.
Thousands were stranded on rooftops of flooded homes in San Pedro de Macoris, where the River Soco burst its banks. Authorities were sending helicopters to rescue people in the northeastern fishing town, birthplace of US baseball star Sammy Sosa.
The storm was downgraded to a depression late on Friday with 56kph winds. It was still on a course though that would take it through the Bahamas yesterday.
"It would take a while for it to strengthen at this point," said Brian Jarvinen, a meteorologist at the US National Hurricane Center in Miami. "For the Bahamas, I think they'll just be looking at tropical storm force winds. On Florida, we're not out of the woods yet but it's still too soon to say what will happen with the depression."
In Samana, a north-coast Dominican town popular with European tourists, the storm stalled for some 10 hours overnight and people felt hurricane-force gusts driving horizontal sheets of rain. Jeanne tore off dozens of roofs in the town and brought down some concrete walls.
"My house is made of wood, so I know it can't hold up to these winds," said Amanda Cibel, 23, who had fled to a shelter in Samana. "It's going to be terrible to go home and find nothing."
One man on a motorcycle was killed instantly when winds slammed him into a telephone pole, Dr. Jacqueline Alvarez said in Samana, about 95km northeast of Santo Domingo.
Jeanne first passed the US Virgin Islands on Wednesday, flooding some homes and littering streets with debris in St. Croix. Two prisoners escaped there during the storm.
The storm was still lashing nearby Puerto Rico with rains on Friday. A severe thunderstorm in the south produced lightning and gusty winds that caused authorities to urge residents to stay inside sturdy buildings.
Authorities in Puerto Rico urged islanders to boil their piped water, prompting angry comments since half the 4 million residents were without running water for a third day on Friday, and 70 percent are without electricity.
The storm destroyed about 30 percent of coffee crops and 20 percent of the plantain and banana crops in Jayuya, a mountain town in central Puerto Rico, said Mayor Jorge Gonzalez Otero.
"It left a wake of destruction," Puerto Rican Governor Sila Calderon said Thursday. She asked US President George W. Bush to declare a disaster to speed the release of federal aid.
Jeanne hit the Dominican Republic with winds near 130kph. More than 8,200 Dominicans were evacuated and took refuge in shelters set up in schools and churches, officials said.
"I've seen strong storms, but never like this," said Elizabeth Javier, 12, standing where her family's living room used to be. The storm demolished one wall and the entire roof.
RSS