Santo Domingo, Aug 24 (EFE).- Two people have died and one was missing in the Dominican Republic after the passage of Tropical Storm Franklin, the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif) said Thursday.
Franklin made landfall in the country from the south on Wednesday morning.
One of the victims was a minor playing in a river in San Cristóbal, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Santo Domingo.
The other was a 33-year-old man who was swept away by the waters in the same province.
The Emergency Operations Center (COE) was still searching for a missing person who jumped into a ravine.
Twenty-four municipalities have been cut off, 3,390 people have been mobilized to safe areas and 89 citizens have been housed in nine shelters.
The government announced that it will allocate special funds to alleviate the effects of the storm.
DAMAGED INFRASTRUCTURE AND HOMES
Property damage is still being assessed after the center of the storm left the Caribbean country on Wednesday afternoon.
The director of the COE, Juan Manuel Méndez, reported on Thursday that 678 houses were affected, two partially damaged and three destroyed.
Two roads and a bridge were also damaged, and 27,329 users were affected by problems with the power grid.
One aqueduct was damaged and 91 were preventively suspended due to the rains, affecting 1,289,083 people, about 1% of the Dominican population.
The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, held a special meeting to analyze the measures needed to mitigate the impact on housing and infrastructure.
The Minister of Administration, José Ignacio Paliza, told journalists that currently their priority is to “understand the real needs, especially in terms of public works,” so that resources can be allocated.
Authorities have ordered an assessment of the damage so the affected can receive assistance, said Paliza, adding that specific measures to “help mitigate the effects” of the storm would be announced soon.
DOMINICANS RETURN TO NORMALITY
Dominicans returned to work and school Thursday morning after they had been suspended two days earlier in anticipation of the storm.
Although it has already left the country, new rains are expected on Thursday afternoon and throughout the day on Friday, which, according to the director of the COE, could cause flooding in both urban and rural areas.
The entire country is still under some form of flood alert.
“We must not be careless, we are still on alert,” said Méndez, who asked the population to be careful and criticized the irresponsible attitude of some people who violate the rules and protocols established during the storm: “When alerts are issued, it’s to save lives, not to disturb.”
After leaving the Dominican Republic, Franklin moved toward the British territory of Turks and Caicos on Thursday with maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour (52 miles per hour).
It could become a hurricane in the coming days, according to the US National Hurricane Center. EFE
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