23 October 2005Jose P. Monegro
Tropical Storm Alpha drenched the Dominican Republic and Haiti with heavy rains after sweeping ashore Sunday, forcing the evacuation of 30,000 people from flood-prone areas. Forecasters warned deadly flash floods and mudslides were possible.
The two countries, which share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, were under a tropical storm warning as the record-setting 22nd named storm of the Atlantic season made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
Alpha had no clearly defined center as it began its passage across the southernmost tip of Hispaniola, said Ron Goodman, a forecaster with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was not considered a threat to the United States, forecasters said.
"It's just a big mass of thunderstorms," Goodman said.
Alpha was expected to weaken over land, it could dissipate in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, the Hurricane Center said. At 8 a.m. EDT, its rough center was about 25 miles west-northwest of the city of Barahona and moving northwestward at 14 mph.
Heavy rains were reported throughout the Dominican Republic, and authorities with megaphones walked through low-lying neighborhoods of San Juan de Maguana which was badly damaged by Hurricane George in 1998 to urge people to leave.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries but the country was in a high state of alert, said Jose Luis German, spokesman for the country's Emergency Operations Committee.
In Haiti, authorities closed the airport because of heavy rain but had no immediate reports of deaths or injuries though it was not possible to contact remote communities, said Abel Nazaire of Haiti's Risk and Disaster Management agency.
Meteorologist Ignacio Feliz of the Dominican weather service said authorities were especially concerned since heavy rains in part due to Hurricane Wilma already had drenched the island in recent days. In Haiti, 12 people died from rains and flooding caused by Wilma.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that Alpha could bring 4 to 8 inches of rain across the island and as much as 15 inches in some places "with a strong likelihood of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides."
