And it also depends where you live in the D.R. Georges destruction in the East part of the D.R. is something I'll never forget.
I should have been more specific. My question was about material damages.
Last edited:
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
Tropical Storm Noel - Why?
And it also depends where you live in the D.R. Georges destruction in the East part of the D.R. is something I'll never forget.
I should have been more specific. My question was about material damages.
I was 7 years old when hurricane David "visited" us. It is one of the most vivid memories of my childhood.
The one thing that I remember clearly is that I had never seen, and have never seen in my life so much rain. I was in San Carlos and the water running down the street was enough to drag me (remember I was a child). It wasn't the wind that did most of the damage, it was the violent, relentless, endless rain. San Carlos and Gazcue flooded so badly that there was not one street that wasn't flooded.
Noel reminded me of that time. Like then people in some parts of Santo Domingo thought it was a mere inconvenience until after the sun came out again.
The one thing that I remember clearly is that I had never seen, and have never seen in my life so much rain. I was in San Carlos and the water running down the street was enough to drag me (remember I was a child). It wasn't the wind that did most of the damage, it was the violent, relentless, endless rain. San Carlos and Gazcue flooded so badly that there was not one street that wasn't flooded.
Noel reminded me of that time. Like then people in some parts of Santo Domingo thought it was a mere inconvenience until after the sun came out again.
I see the standard warnings from the NHC are stressing general flooding currently. Usually the standard warnings are 'flash floods and mudslides'. The language has changed somewhat to 'catastrophic flooding, flash floods and mudslides'.
Interesting interview here with Eric Blake of the Miami Hurricane Centre saying they did issue warnings about Noel every 6 hours but the DR authorities didn't take them seriously. Also says they predicted 30 inches of rain.
DominicanosHoy.com, Tu peri?dico Digital
I haven't seen this interview reported in the nationals yet.
DominicanosHoy.com, Tu peri?dico Digital
I haven't seen this interview reported in the nationals yet.
I'd be really sorry if this turns into a fingerpointing excercise between anyone. The NHC does excellent work. I'm sure they did not call the DR met office.
The first advisories (Saturday) of Noel had 8 to 12 inches over Hispaniola.
The advisories from Sunday late onwards, increased this to possible isolated maximum totals of 20 inches.
The advisories on Monday from the morning onwards increased this to possible isolated maximum totals of 20 inches.
As we all know, on Monday evening it was raining steadily, the system had stalled and it was clear to anyone looking up and looking at a satellite picture and looking at the speed of the system, that it had stalled.
Full archive of Noel warnings and advisories can be found here.
Do remember that the language in the advisories is 'normalized' or standardized. (Cannot think of another word now). Possible isolated maximum totals - means there is a possibility. Their language was normal.
Reality is that no-one could predict the amount of time that the system sat over Hispaniola and Haiti and rained. And once it starts, it is hard to make the call to evacuate.
The first advisories (Saturday) of Noel had 8 to 12 inches over Hispaniola.
The advisories from Sunday late onwards, increased this to possible isolated maximum totals of 20 inches.
The advisories on Monday from the morning onwards increased this to possible isolated maximum totals of 20 inches.
As we all know, on Monday evening it was raining steadily, the system had stalled and it was clear to anyone looking up and looking at a satellite picture and looking at the speed of the system, that it had stalled.
Full archive of Noel warnings and advisories can be found here.
Do remember that the language in the advisories is 'normalized' or standardized. (Cannot think of another word now). Possible isolated maximum totals - means there is a possibility. Their language was normal.
Reality is that no-one could predict the amount of time that the system sat over Hispaniola and Haiti and rained. And once it starts, it is hard to make the call to evacuate.
Last edited:
You know, I keep analyzing, going over old reports and advisories, old satellite pics etc., and I've just gone through the complete coverage on DR1 .. many many threads, questions and comments and first hand reports. I keep coming to the same conclusion. We could not have fore-casted this if we tried. This was a tropical storm, not a hurricane. And the weather system could have moved on and we could have had 12 or so inches of rain. It was only toward early Monday morning that people started figuring that we had a serious situation on our hands.
One learns. There is no way that any country can take action while the waters are already pouring down and communication channels are already non-functional. Cuba is a model in terms of low-tech weather related emergency preparedness but then again, they are differently structured politically and administratively - this helps them to keep their lives-lost toll very low. We all know that in this instance, they were very well forewarned and could make arrangements. Chiri reported that Haiti was more prepared than the DR and much agony was avoided because they acted once they saw what was happening in the DR. Remember, Puerto Rico, just a hop skip and jump away from us, and the place that we look to to learn from, escaped just about unscathed.
Long term solution is to allow only non-flood-prone areas for housing and human habitation in future.
One learns. There is no way that any country can take action while the waters are already pouring down and communication channels are already non-functional. Cuba is a model in terms of low-tech weather related emergency preparedness but then again, they are differently structured politically and administratively - this helps them to keep their lives-lost toll very low. We all know that in this instance, they were very well forewarned and could make arrangements. Chiri reported that Haiti was more prepared than the DR and much agony was avoided because they acted once they saw what was happening in the DR. Remember, Puerto Rico, just a hop skip and jump away from us, and the place that we look to to learn from, escaped just about unscathed.
Long term solution is to allow only non-flood-prone areas for housing and human habitation in future.
Very enlightening interview indeed. According to Mr Blake it takes days for tropical storms to form and Noel was being followed for days by the Hurricane Center. On another note I wish we could find out who this telephone number belongs to 1-809-788- 1AAA. Is this the only number that the Miami Hurricane Center has available to contact the Dominican Republic to report storms and hurricanes? Incredible!:surprised
aranoid:
afterwards:
the last 20 minutes i've been rereading the whole thread, each single post, so i will answer from My point of view, without offending anybody in person or as institution.
the heavy rainfalls with very high winds over Puerto Rico friday night been a surprise in their strength for Puerto Rico, we got live updated notice of that here in Punta Cana, and i don't think that i am the only person on the island who is in touch with people in Puerto rico. we've been highly alerted by midnight (friday-saturday night), saturday morning 7AM all my boats been on their way out of the Punta Cana Marina to a save place, it was 100% sure that even Punta Cana would not be a save place for the vehicles during the next 72hrs.
it was a matter of precaution, Noel at the end did not run over Punta Cana, but we clearly expected him to do so.
we had windspeeds near hurricane force southeast of the Punta Cana Faro during saturday while Noel moved more southwards than expected and entered the caribbean sea along the south coast.
we had heaviest rainfalls and high thunderstorms during the whole sunday(the storm passed us far south by that time, we've not been dangerously close to it!!!!), so who the hell want's to tell me that the rest of the island did not have notice about the weather conditions in puerto rico til friday night and Punta Cana during saturday and sunday???
if those conditions do not alert anybody, i don't know how to alert anybody about anything.
the only point nobody could predict at no point of Noel's destructive way is the fact that he stayed at the southwest to load up all that waterloads there, and that he will move north to cross the island Hispaniola and still with those heavy waterloads coming down. but at least the southwest should've been alerted and evacuations of the lower areas like San Cristobal should have started.
somebody complained about Georges not been mentioned in a prior post, George was bad(i think Mariposa wrote about george), he was a hurrican, slow moving with deadly strength, luckily he missed the Punta Cana area by many 100's nmls, or he would've been a disaster over here, too.
i've been here during George, like i am on the east 24/7/365 since 13 years now, 3 days and nights of heaviest rainfalls, no electricity, no phones, no internet, we had trouble to get fresh food for a week, so what, compared to other areas in the caribbean where he killed many people George was not that worse thing happened to PC. after 1 week electricity been back everywhere and supermarkets been open and stocked, maybe bad for fancy people in fancy areas, but compared to other areas George is in Punta Cana not the 'BIG' deal to mention, Noel been for the people on the southwest much worse than any George could be for Punta Cana.
just from the point of view on the east.
Mike
the last 20 minutes i've been rereading the whole thread, each single post, so i will answer from My point of view, without offending anybody in person or as institution.
the heavy rainfalls with very high winds over Puerto Rico friday night been a surprise in their strength for Puerto Rico, we got live updated notice of that here in Punta Cana, and i don't think that i am the only person on the island who is in touch with people in Puerto rico. we've been highly alerted by midnight (friday-saturday night), saturday morning 7AM all my boats been on their way out of the Punta Cana Marina to a save place, it was 100% sure that even Punta Cana would not be a save place for the vehicles during the next 72hrs.
it was a matter of precaution, Noel at the end did not run over Punta Cana, but we clearly expected him to do so.
we had windspeeds near hurricane force southeast of the Punta Cana Faro during saturday while Noel moved more southwards than expected and entered the caribbean sea along the south coast.
we had heaviest rainfalls and high thunderstorms during the whole sunday(the storm passed us far south by that time, we've not been dangerously close to it!!!!), so who the hell want's to tell me that the rest of the island did not have notice about the weather conditions in puerto rico til friday night and Punta Cana during saturday and sunday???
if those conditions do not alert anybody, i don't know how to alert anybody about anything.
the only point nobody could predict at no point of Noel's destructive way is the fact that he stayed at the southwest to load up all that waterloads there, and that he will move north to cross the island Hispaniola and still with those heavy waterloads coming down. but at least the southwest should've been alerted and evacuations of the lower areas like San Cristobal should have started.
somebody complained about Georges not been mentioned in a prior post, George was bad(i think Mariposa wrote about george), he was a hurrican, slow moving with deadly strength, luckily he missed the Punta Cana area by many 100's nmls, or he would've been a disaster over here, too.
i've been here during George, like i am on the east 24/7/365 since 13 years now, 3 days and nights of heaviest rainfalls, no electricity, no phones, no internet, we had trouble to get fresh food for a week, so what, compared to other areas in the caribbean where he killed many people George was not that worse thing happened to PC. after 1 week electricity been back everywhere and supermarkets been open and stocked, maybe bad for fancy people in fancy areas, but compared to other areas George is in Punta Cana not the 'BIG' deal to mention, Noel been for the people on the southwest much worse than any George could be for Punta Cana.
just from the point of view on the east.
Mike