Deadly Noel could become hurricane*

At least 19 killed in Dominican Republic, Haiti; storm likely to hit Bahamas

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 1:23 p.m. PT Oct 30, 2007

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Tropical Storm Noel weakened as it
moved inland over northern Cuba on Tuesday, but the storm that killed at
least 19 people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti was expected to
briefly become a hurricane later in the week somewhere near the Bahamas.

Forecasters said a tropical storm watch, which means that tropical storm
conditions are possible within 36 hours, may be issued for southeast
Florida later in the day.

The 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic storm season was not expected
to strengthen significantly because of unfavorable wind conditions in
the atmosphere. But the National Hurricane Center forecast Noel would
briefly become a minimal hurricane on its closest approach to southeast
Florida.

Computer models showed Noel as a hurricane heading northwest toward
Florida but making a sharp turn at some point to the northeast and
swirling out over the Bahamas into the Atlantic.

Bahamian authorities closed most government offices and lines formed at
grocery stores and gas stations in Nassau, the capital. Rain from the
outer bands of the storm forced tourists to cover themselves in trash
bags or huddle for shelter in doorways of the city's colonial downtown.

"We're expecting a lot of rain and for conditions here to deteriorate
starting tonight," Jeffrey Simmons, deputy director of the Department of
Meteorology in the Bahamas, said Tuesday.

The Miami-based center's official forecast took Noel's top sustained
winds up to a peak of 75 mph, just over the cusp of qualifying as a
Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

At 2 p.m. ET, Noel was centered about 30 miles east-southeast of
Camaguey, Cuba, and it was moving toward the west at about 8 mph.

Maximum sustained winds were 40 mph, down from 60 mph earlier.

In Cuba, a country famous for emergency precautions, the government said
about 1,000 homes had suffered damage, 2,000 people had been evacuated
from low-lying areas across the island and schools were closed for
several thousand students.

Two women died in Haiti Tuesday when they were washed away by flood
waters near the city of Gantier, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director
of Haiti's civil protection agency. One child also was found dead in
Cite Soleil, a seaside slum in Haiti's capital.

'Took us by surprise'

Officials in the neighboring Dominican Republic, meanwhile, revised the
death toll downward to 16. The National Emergency Commission reported
Monday that at least 20 had died as a result of the storm in that
country, but on Tuesday, agency spokesman Luis Luna Paulino said they
had miscalculated the earlier figure.

Rain was still pounding the two countries Tuesday.

In the Dominican Republic, almost 12,000 people were driven from their
homes and nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed, while collapsed bridges and
swollen rivers have isolated 36 towns, Luna said.

The dead included three people swept up by a fast-moving river in San
Jose de Ocoa and three others buried in a mudslide in the port city of
Haina, officials said.

In Haiti, about 2,000 people were evacuated from homes from the southern
coastal city of Jacmel, where at least 150 residents were stranded on
rooftops. Officials said bad weather prevented helicopters from reaching
them by air.

Hundreds also were evacuated in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where muddy
water was so deep in some streets that people swam in it.

Noel had been forecast to hit Haiti hardest but veered toward the
Dominican Republic, apparently catching residents off guard Monday.

"We didn't know that it was going to be like this, it took us by
surprise," said Guarionex Rosado as he left his home in La Cienaga, one
of Santo Domingo's most affected neighborhoods.

Noel temporarily knocked out the Dominican Republic's entire power
system early Monday, plunging 9.4 million people into the dark for about
two hours.

Death toll could rise

International aid workers believe the death toll is certain to rise as
reports come in from remote areas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

"I think this has taken some officials by surprise. The storm was
predicted to go more toward Haiti," said Holly Inuretta, a regional
adviser for U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services.

Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis urged people to seek shelter.

"It's moving very slowly and dropping a lot of rain," he said

Haiti is prone to deadly flooding because of its steep mountains and
hills deforested by people who cut down the trees to make charcoal.
Floods earlier this month killed at least 37 and sent more than 4,000
people to shelters.