Sep 18, 2004 4 min read

SAMANA, Dominican Republic (AP) – Slow-moving Tropical Storm Jeanne swept the Dominican Republic on Friday with fierce winds and heavy rain that triggered mudslides, collapsed walls and forced thousands to evacuate. The storm, which had killed six people across the Caribbean, was expected to become a hurricane over the Bahamas and then head for Florida. A Dominican man was crushed to death by a falling palm tree Friday, and another died from a heart attack when he couldn’t get to a hospital because of the storm, said Juan Luis German, spokesman for the National Emergency Committee.

Both deaths occurred in El Seybo, a town 80 miles northeast of Santo Domingo, the capital where the storm’s torrential rain set off a landslide Thursday that smashed a house and killed an infant girl inside.

Thousands were stranded on rooftops of flooded homes in San Pedro de Macoris, where the River Soco burst its banks. Authorities were sending helicopters to rescue people in the northeastern fishing town, birthplace of baseball star Sammy Sosa.

The storm was projected to move north and graze the southern Bahamas, and there was a chance that Florida, already battered by three hurricanes, could feel Jeanne’s effects by Sunday.

“It’s expected to strengthen to somewhere between a Category 1 or Category 2” hurricane, which would put its winds somewhere between 74 and 110 mph, said Walter Snell, a forecaster at the U.S. National Weather Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“What happens with the high pressure fronts on the edge of the storm will determine how close it gets to Florida.”

The storm stalled for about 10 hours Thursday over Samana, a north-coast Dominican town popular with European tourists. Horizontal sheets of rain lashed the town as the wind tore off dozens of roofs and brought down some concrete walls.

“My house is made of wood so I know it can’t hold up to these winds,” 23-year-old Amanda Cibel said at a shelter in Samana. “It’s going to be terrible to go home and find nothing.”

A man on a motorcycle was killed instantly Thursday when winds slammed him into a telephone pole, Dr. Jacqueline Alvarez said at the hospital of Samana, about 60 miles northeast of Santo Domingo.

Jeanne passed over the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday, flooding some homes and littering streets with debris in St. Croix. Two prisoners escaped there during the storm, though it was unclear how.

The storm was still lashing nearby Puerto Rico with rain Friday. A severe thunderstorm in the south produced lightning and gusty winds that caused authorities to urge residents to stay inside sturdy buildings.

Officials in Puerto Rico urged islanders to boil their piped water – prompting angry comments since half the 4 million residents were without running water for a third day Friday and 70 percent didn’t have electricity.

The storm destroyed about 30 percent of coffee crops and 20 percent of the plantain and banana crops in Jayuya, a mountain town in central Puerto Rico, Mayor Jorge Gonzalez Otero said.

“It left a wake of destruction,” Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon said Thursday. She asked President Bush to declare a disaster to speed the release of federal aid.

Jeanne dumped up to two feet of rain the U.S. territory, flooding hundreds of homes and downing power lines. Two people died.

At least 12 people were injured as trees crashed down and floods struck parts of the east and northeast of the Dominican Republic, officials said. Big waves pounded the north coast.

Electricity and water were out. Airlines canceled flights. More than 8,200 Dominicans took refuge in shelters set up in schools and churches, officials said.

“I’ve seen strong storms but never like this,” said Elizabeth Javier, 12, standing where her family’s living room used to be. The storm demolished one wall and the entire roof.

At 2 p.m. EDT, Jeanne was centered just north of the Haiti-Dominican border, about 95 miles south-southwest of Grand Turk island. It was moving slowly west-northwestward at about 8 mph, with storm-force winds stretching 200 miles.

A hurricane warning was posted for the southeastern Bahamas and the British Turks and Caicos Islands, and a hurricane watch was up for the central Bahamas – an area still recovering from Hurricane Frances. Haiti’s north coast was under storm warning.

Jeanne brewed in the Caribbean the same day Hurricane Ivan passed into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving at least 70 dead across the Caribbean, half in devastated Grenada.

Two people died in the Cayman Islands during Ivan, including a man whose body was found Friday. Caymanian leader McKeeva Bush said 20 percent of homes in the wealthy British territory of 45,000 people were “totally demolished” and most homes suffered some damage.

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Associated Press reporters Istra Pacheco, Ricardo Zuniga and Jose Fernandez Colon in Puerto Rico contributed to this story.

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On the Net:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical