Tropical storm rounds on Cuba

Tropical Storm Noel’s centre spun slowly across Cuba as the system’s outer bands dumped heavy rains on island of Hispaniola, prompting thousands to flee their homes to escape rushing floodwaters and mudslides.

Hardest-hit by the sluggish storm were the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share Hispaniola, where emergency officials reported between 22 and 36 people dead yesterday. Death figures varied because of the difficulty of reaching remote parts of the island.

Forecasters projected the storm would emerge over water today near central Cuba and head north east towards the Bahamas. Residents of south-eastern Florida were advised to monitor the progress of Noel, which could pass close to the state over the next few days.

Warnings were in effect for rough surf for much of South Florida, including the Miami area, as waves were already pounding the region’s beaches. But forecasters said the rains would probably miss drought-stricken Georgia, Alabama and other south-eastern states.

Noel’s outer bands were still pounding Hispaniola early today even as the storm chugged away from the island, which is made vulnerable to flash floods by its many denuded hillsides.

In the Dominican Republic, nearly 12,000 people were driven from their homes and nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed, while collapsed bridges and swollen rivers had isolated 36 towns, said Dominican emergency services spokesman Luis Luna Paulino.

“The rains continue to fall and we fear for several families,” said Sergio Vargas, a merengue star and Dominican congressman who represents Villa Altagracia, a small town north of the capital, Santo Domingo.

In neighbouring Haiti, at least six people died, including two women washed away by a river in the town of Gantier, said United Nations peacekeeping mission spokesman Mamadou Bah. Red Cross volunteers said a three-year-old boy drowned as his family tried to rescue him from a raging river in the neighbourhood of Duvivier.

In Port-au-Prince, thousands slogged through waist-high water that turned streets into brown rivers, carrying their last remaining possessions as they fled deluged shacks and makeshift homes. Refugees were brought by the truckload to the dense seaside slum of Cite Soleil, where they were packed into two schools and given food by volunteers.

About 2,000 people were evacuated from homes from the southern coastal city of Jacmel, where at least 150 residents were stranded on rooftops.

In Cuba, 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.

Bahamian authorities closed most government offices and lines formed at grocery stores and petrol 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.

“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 yesterday.

At 3am today, Noel’s centre was “very near” Camaguey, Cuba, and about 255 miles south of Nassau, Bahamas. Noel was moving north west at about 5mph. Maximum sustained winds were 40mph.