Three days of heavy rains fell over the Dominican Republic due to a passing trough and tropical wave since Wednesday, 24 September 2025 and resulted in more than 5,000 persons displaced from their homes, and around a thousand dwellings affected. There were 21 communities incommunicado. Several aqueducts were also impacted by the intense rains.
The rains came as the trough and tropical wave coincided with the passing outer bands of Humberto crossed by the island.
The rains caused the cancellation of the opening of the Santo Domingo book fair, the most important cultural event of the year. On Friday, 26 September, the Ministry of Education sent students in the early morning. The government recommended that employers be flexible.
The rains continued through Saturday, 28 September, but Sunday was an intensely hot day.
Intense rainfall from the weather phenomenons caused the significant disruption across the nation, initially isolating 21 localities. However, authorities have confirmed that all of these communities had returned to normal by midday yesterday.
The scale of the impact from the past 24 hours of downpours was detailed by José Luis Germán, Deputy Director of the Emergency Operations Center (COE).
Germán reported a full recovery regarding displaced persons. The 5,615 people who had been evacuated or displaced over the past weekend are now back in their homes, including the 26 individuals who had been placed in shelters.
Despite the rapid normalization in human terms, the COE reported that the infrastructure continues to feel the strain. The heavy rains resulted in 48 aqueducts being knocked out of service.
Media reports covered how the rivers overflowed, including the Masacre River on the very border in Dajabon, flooding Ouanaminthe on the Haitian side and parts of Dajabon and rice fields on the Dominican side. In central mountain places like San Jose de Ocoa, flood waters damaged houses and crops, cut communications, and damaged water supply.
At one time over the weekend, the Center for Emergency Operations (COE) had issued alerts for 29 of the 23 provinces. These included several provinces on red alert. By late Saturday, there were still 25 provinces on either yellow or green alert. Rains were so heavy that government offices were closed down, working hours were shifted around to accommodate urban flooding.
The COE reported that 4,500 people had been displaced from their homes, and 675,000 persons lost their potable water service, since local water works were either damaged or overcome with sediment. Even 19 communities were cut off from the rest of the country due to rising waters and damaged roads. Urban flooding in Greater Santo Domingo was quite evident in many places, and even large trucks had difficulty in reaching their destinations.
The Weather Institute (Indomet) forecast that for Monday, 29 September 2025 the rains will have almost stopped due mainly to a passing high-pressure system. Nevertheless, the humidity is expected to bring some short-lasting rains to central mountain provinces and border provinces.
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Diario Libre
29 September 2025