43 dead as storm rages across Caribbean
Pastor Dale Morgan
43 dead as storm rages across Caribbean*
From correspondents in Havana
October 31, 2007 05:33pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
AT least 43 people were killed in floods and landslides triggered by
Tropical Storm Noel as it barrelled across Haiti, the Dominican Republic
and Cuba, in the Caribbean, officials said today.
After drenching Hispaniola, an island shared by the Dominican Republic
and Haiti, Noel late today moved slowly across the Cuban interior.
It left at least 30 people dead and 15 reported missing in the Dominican
Republic and threatened to cause more floods and mudslides across the
region, already drenched by weeks of rainfall.
The National Emergency Committee said nearly 20,000 people had to
evacuate their homes across the country.
In Haiti, an AFP reporter in the capital city Port-au-Prince witnessed
four deaths, including a 14-year old girl and her mother who were killed
when an uprooted tree crushed their house.
Authorities in the impoverished and vulnerable Caribbean nation reported
another nine deaths, 11 injuries and 3000 people evacuated from their
homes across the country.
Heavy rain swept away and destroyed homes in three departments, said
Marie Alta Jean Baptiste, head of the country's civil protection agency.
The storm caused authorities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti to shut
down airports.
Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis said $US1.5 million
($A1.64 million) had been set aside to assist storm victims.
Dominican President Leonel Fernandez convened an emergency cabinet
meeting and announced a $US3 million ($A3.27 million) relief package for
storm victims.
In Cuba, 2000 people in the storm's path were evacuated.
Tropical Storm Noel was expected to head back out to sea off the north
coast of Cuba tonight or tomorrow.
It was then expected to barrel over some of the Bahamian islands before
heading north into the Atlantic Ocean, though forecasters said Noel's
likely track would take it dangerously close to Florida's east coast.
At 2400 GMT (1100 AEDT) the centre of the storm was 40 kilometres
south-southwest of Camaguey, Cuba. Noel packed maximum sustained winds
of 65 km/h.