The Dominican consulate in Philadelphia was closed yesterday, leaving 30,000 Dominicans in the area without consular services. This brings the number of recent closures to four, together with the consulates in Jackson Hills, Baltimore and Chicago. According to El Nacional, Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso sent the Philadelphia consul, Wilson Diaz the closure notice on 4 November. The closure was unannounced. In an interview with the newspaper, Diaz told reporters that he expects an angry reaction from local Dominican residents now left without consular services. Besides Diaz, the Philadelphia consulate had five vice-consuls and seven assistant consuls. Diaz had also held the consular post during the previous PLD administration (1996-2000). Strangely, staff had not yet received notification about their job losses. The consulate in Baltimore was an honorary consulate held by Carlos Feliz who had moved to New York and who has not received any official notification of the closure of his consulate. Added to the consular closing, Dominicans resident in the southern United States no longer have the services of the Dominican consulate that used to be located in New Orleans. Due to the flooding that resulted from Hurricane Katrina, this consulate is now functioning from a private residence in Houston, Texas.