2025News

Government to provide emergency aid to flood victims

Unseasonably heavy rains have disrupted the holiday season in northern regions of the Dominican Republic, where flooding caused by persistent downpours has damaged homes and displaced residents.

During a visit to Puerto Plata province yesterday, Acting President Raquel Peña announced that 3,469 families affected by the severe flooding will receive a RD$5,000 family support bonus. The program has a budget totaling RD$17,345,000.

She said that a regional office of the Ministry of Public Works would be set up as of 7 January 2025 to accelerate reparations in the area.

Peña visited the Gregorio Luperón General Hospital and Villa Melecia in the municipality of Villa Montellano, both of which experienced flooding, as well as Cabarete in Sosúa. In Espaillat province, Peña toured the municipal district of Veragua in the municipality of Gaspar Hernández.

The latest report from the Emergency Operations Center (COE) indicated that 21,313 people were displaced to safe areas, 4,489 homes were damaged, and at least 33 communities were cut off in Puerto Plata, Espaillat, Hermanas Mirabal, Duarte and María Trinidad Sánchez provinces.

Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
El Nuevo Diario

2 January 2025