|
Franklin, which brought stormy winds and rain across the
Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti, is forecast to gather
strength over the Atlantic Ocean and could become a hurricane
this weekend.
At 8 p.m. (2100 GMT), the storm had passed north of Puerto Plata
on the Dominican Republic's north coast, moving north-northeast
into the Atlantic at 13 mph (20 kph), according to the U.S.
National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The head of the Dominican COE emergency services said a man had
been found dead in San Cristobal province after trying to swim
through floodwaters.
The NHC, which expects Franklin to near hurricane strength over
the southwestern Atlantic by Saturday, said the Dominican
Republic was likely to still see heavy rain, which could bring
life-threatening flooding through Thursday.
Parts of the country could still get slammed with up to 16
inches (40 cm) of rain, the agency said, while areas of Turks
and Caicos should see storm conditions by late Wednesday and
western Puerto Rico could expect some light rain.
RETURN TO NORMAL
Dominican President Luis Abinader told a briefing schools and
businesses would resume on Thursday, and the government would
attend to communities whose infrastructure was damaged by the
storm.
"Business will return to normal starting tomorrow," he said.
A preliminary COE report found that no homes had been destroyed
by the storm though more than 500 had been damaged and more than
300 people had moved to shelters.
The storm cut off access to six Dominican communities and
damaged roads, water infrastructure and the electrical grid,
emergency services said.
In Haiti, the Hydro-Meteorological Unit (UHM) had lifted its
yellow alert as the storm passed over.
"Franklin does not represent a direct danger," UHM said in a
bulletin late on Wednesday, warning strong to moderate rainfall
was still forecast across parts of the country, threatening to
trigger flooding and landslides.
A day earlier, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said it had
prepared response teams to supply vulnerable communities. Some
200,000 people are estimated to be displaced in Haiti due to an
extended conflict with armed gangs.
(Reporting by Paul Mathiasen in Santo Domingo, Harold Isaac in
Port-au-Prince, Sarah Morland in Mexico City, Harshit Verma and
Ananya Bajpai in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Robert
Birsel)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
