The Center for Emergency Operations (COE) has increased the number of provinces under alert to 19, with two on yellow alert and the remainder, green.
In addition, they announced that 80 people have had to leave their homes and 16 homes have been affected in the community of Rancho Abajo in La Vega due to the heavy rains.
The provinces under yellow alert are Puerto Plata and Espaillat; and on green alert are Santiago, San Cristóbal, La Vega, María Trinidad Sánchez, Duarte (especially Bajo Yuna), San José de Ocoa, Pedernales, Montecristi, Monseñor Nouel, Santiago Rodríguez, San Juan de la Maguana, Barahona, Elías Piña, Valverde, Dajabón, Independencia and Bahoruco.
COE recommends those people living in provinces under alert should follow instructions from the protection agencies, boil water and add chlorine for human consumption, use shoes and eliminate breeding grounds for mosquitoes by disposing of standing water.
Onamet, the Meteorological Office, forecasts a significant increase in rain over the next 24 to 48 hours due to weather front located over the eastern part of Cuba causing cloud cover over the whole of the Dominican Republic.
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Listin Diario
17 May 2017
