President Luis Abinader announced on Sunday, 26 October 2025, a progressive return to normal working and schooling activities on Monday, 27 October following a week of light and heavy rains brought by the excruciatingly slow-moving Tropical Storm Melissa. After swerving to the west on to Jamaica, Melissa is now Hurricane Melissa, a Category 4 storm but only four provinces in southwestern Dominican Republic are forecast to continue to receive the rains.
President Luis Abinader has highlighted that the Dominican Republic had never experienced a Tropical Storm of this nature. The system began bringing rains on Monday, 20 October and these have continued for about a week given Melissa’s large stretch of the outer bands and the abnormally slow speeds of 2 to 6km.
President Luis Abinader warned that Tropical Storm Melissa proved to be one of the most erratic and longest-duration atmospheric phenomena to impact the Dominican Republic in recent decades. The storm’s slow displacement and persistent, heavy rainfall across a large swathe of the country were always the primary concern.
Speaking on the unfolding situation, the President emphasized the government’s comprehensive response. “The government and all institutions are attending to the situation to protect human lives and property,” Abinader stated. “We are facing one of the storms that, according to experts and analysts, is the most erratic and of the longest time extension that has affected the national territory.”
The storm’s unusual behavior, marked by its sluggish movement, is expected to generate significant rainfall, leading to potential flooding and damage as authorities work to mitigate the effects and safeguard the population. The storm caused damage to water systems, impacting around 647,000 people and 127,000 households, caused 3,765 evacuations. 735 homes suffered significant damages.
“We must now begin moving toward normalcy, and we will begin assistance efforts for the population in vulnerable zones,” Abinader stated during an official address on Sunday, 26 October. The President, heeding recommendations of the Center for Emergency Operations (Coe) and the Weather Institute (Indomet), had called off school and non-essential work since Wednesday, 22 October in all provinces under red alert. Only supermarkets and corner grocery stores, clinics, banks and pharmacies were allowed to open from Wednesday to Saturday. The population in general complied with the order to stay home.
Despite the broader call to resume daily life, the President announced that activities will remain suspended in four provinces due to persistent Red Alert status: Barahona, Pedernales, Bahoruco and Independencia in the southwest. These provinces continue under special vigilance and are still being impacted by the outer bands of the storm as it moves to the west and then through the Windward Passage (Canal de los Vientos) between Haiti and Cuba.
Gloria Ceballos, director of the National Weather Office (Indomet), confirmed that while Melissa is moving away from the national territory, its weather system is still generating significant rainfall and wind gusts, particularly across the southwest.
“We call on the country to return to normal, except in the provinces that are still under a red alert,” Ceballos reiterated.
Authorities are urging the public to continue monitoring official weather bulletins, especially those in high-risk communities, and to cooperate fully with assistance brigades deployed in the affected zones.
Indomet says that the country will remain with an environment loaded with humidity, a product of the indirect effects of Hurricane Melissa. For the morning of Monday, 27 October, Indomet forecasts the environment will remain favorable for moderate to strong local downpours with electrical storms and wind gusts in towns across: Barahona, Pedernales, Baoruco, Independencia, San Juan, Elías Piña, Azua, Peravia, San Cristóbal, and San José de Ocoa. These weather conditions will maintain the risk of sudden floods, rising rivers, streams, and ravines, as well as landslides, especially in the provinces mentioned.
Additionally, in the afternoon, precipitation of varied intensity will be generated over Santo Domingo, Monte Plata, Sánchez Ramírez, Hato Mayor, El Seibo, and other areas of the northeast and the Cibao Valley.
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27 October 2025