According to Francisco Holguin, from the National Meteorological Office (Onamet), Hurricane Maria will be much more dangerous for the country than Irma, even though Irma was a category 5 and Maria is a category 4 at the time of making the statement. It would later decline to a category 3 as it passed Hispaniola Island. As the storm moves north to the Atlantic Ocean, its rain and wind bands are expected to continue to affect the country on Thursday, 21 September 2017.
Holguin had alerted that Maria will be passing around 150 kilometers from Samana, whereas the eye from Maria will be around 100 kilometers from the east coast and 70 from the north east that meant wind, waves and rain would be worse than during Irma.
He said that Maria was travelling much slower at 17 kilometers an hour and Irma was much faster at 28 kph, so Maria would be in the country for longer. In addition the ground is already saturated so he expects major flooding especially in the northwest, Dajabon, Montecristi and Santiago Rodriguez.
He said that some of the dams would have their floodgates opened and the Yaque del Norte River is already almost full. He says it is possible that extensive areas of farmland will be flooded in the northwest and there may be serious crop damage.
In its 6pm bulletin on Wednesday, 20 September 2017, the Emergency Operations Center (COE) had placed 14 provinces on red alert. These are: La Altagracia (Punta Cana and Higuey), El Seibo, Hato Mayor, Samana, Espaillat, Maria Trinidad Sánchez, Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, La Romana, Montecristi, Duarte (San Francisco de Macorís), Monte Plata, San Cristóbal and the National District. Provinces under yellow alert are: La Vega, San Pedro de Macoris, Sánchez Ramírez (Cotuí), San José de Ocoa, Monseñor Nouel (Bonao), San Juan de la Maguana, Santiago Rodríguez, Valverde, Santiago, Azua, Dajabón, Hermanas Mirabal (Salcedo). Provinces under green alert are: Elías Piña, Independencia, Bahoruco, Pedernales, Barahona, and Peravia (Baní).
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
COE
21 September 2017
