SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Tropical Storm Noel triggered mudslides and floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, pushing the death toll to 60 on Wednesday and forcing some parents to choose which of their children to save from the surging waters.
The storm lurched out of Cuba and stalled over the ocean, but was projected to skirt Florida and batter the Bahamas, the U.S. ational Hurricane Center said. A tropical storm watch was issued for parts of southeast Florida. With rain still falling two days after the storm hit, rescuers were struggling to reach communities cut off by flooding on the island of Hispaniola. As they did, they found a rising toll of death and damage -- at least 41 dead in the Dominican Republic, 18 in Haiti and one in Jamaica.
Floods inundated the small town of Bonao, forcing Charo Vidal into a tree late Tuesday. She watched her neighbor struggle to do the same nearby, clutching infant twins while she climbed as the waters swept an older daughter away. "She couldn't take care of all three," Vidal said. "That is something very significant, to have a child snatched from your hands and you cannot do anything for them." A man who carried his 6-year-old son on his back also lost him to the flood, Vidal said.
"The child said, 'Daddy, I'm slipping. Daddy, I'm slipping,"' Vidal said. "A lot of people had to choose between losing one child and losing another one," said Liony Batista, a project manager for Food for the Poor, an international Christian relief organization. Batista said 200 homes were destroyed in Bonao alone. At least 50,500 Dominicans fled their homes, 12,000 of which were damaged, said Luis Antonio Luna, head of the Emergencies Commission. Flooding also forced the evacuation of about 1,000 prisoners from a prison north of the Dominican capital.
Luna said officials were trying to reach dozens of isolated communities, but bad weather, a lack of helicopters and damage to bridges and highways slowed rescue efforts. Monica Segura, 28, and her family abandoned their riverside home Tuesday when water rushed in. They fled with some 200 other people to a sports complex in the Dominican town of Barahona. "I don't even know how I'm alive," she said. "I lost everything. The only thing that I could save was the clothes I was wearing."
In neighboring Haiti, floods rushed through houses in the Cite Soleil slum, carrying away a 3-year-old boy as relatives frantically shouted for help and tried unsuccessfully to reach him through the muddy, debris-filled water. Two people were killed when their house collapsed in a mudslide in the hillside suburb of Petionville, and at least three others died in Jacmel, where officials said 150 people were trapped on rooftops awaiting aid.
Some Haitian shelters were overwhelmed by evacuees. One in Cite Soleil, guarded by U.N. troops, had one blanket for every two people. Noel is the deadliest Caribbean storm since Tropical Storm Jeanne hit Haiti in 2004, killing 1,500 people and triggering widespread flooding and mudslides before it became a hurricane. An additional 900 people were reported missing and presumed dead.
This year's deadliest hurricane, Category 5 Felix, killed at least 101 people in September, mostly along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. At 5 p.m. Eastern, Noel's center was about 240 miles southeast of Miami. The storm was nearly stationary, but was expected to turn to the north away from Florida later in the day and speed away from the U.S. over the Bahamas. It had top sustained winds near 50 miles per hour, up from 40 miles per hour earlier in the day.
Eastern Cuba got soaked but apparently escaped major damage. It also was raining in the Bahamas, where authorities closed most government offices and lines formed at grocery stores and gas stations in Nassau, the capital.
Rough surf warnings were in effect for much of South Florida. Waves were pounding beaches in the Miami area, and residents of a waterfront condominium in South Palm Beach were urged to evacuate after the surf destroyed a retaining wall damaged by another storm. Forecasters said the rain would likely miss drought-stricken Georgia, Alabama and other southeastern states.
Floods inundated the small town of Bonao, forcing Charo Vidal into a tree late Tuesday. She watched her neighbor struggle to do the same nearby, clutching infant twins while she climbed as the waters swept an older daughter away. "She couldn't take care of all three," Vidal said. "That is something very significant, to have a child snatched from your hands and you cannot do anything for them." A man who carried his 6-year-old son on his back also lost him to the flood, Vidal said.
"The child said, 'Daddy, I'm slipping. Daddy, I'm slipping,"' Vidal said. "A lot of people had to choose between losing one child and losing another one," said Liony Batista, a project manager for Food for the Poor, an international Christian relief organization. Batista said 200 homes were destroyed in Bonao alone. At least 50,500 Dominicans fled their homes, 12,000 of which were damaged, said Luis Antonio Luna, head of the Emergencies Commission. Flooding also forced the evacuation of about 1,000 prisoners from a prison north of the Dominican capital.
Luna said officials were trying to reach dozens of isolated communities, but bad weather, a lack of helicopters and damage to bridges and highways slowed rescue efforts. Monica Segura, 28, and her family abandoned their riverside home Tuesday when water rushed in. They fled with some 200 other people to a sports complex in the Dominican town of Barahona. "I don't even know how I'm alive," she said. "I lost everything. The only thing that I could save was the clothes I was wearing."
In neighboring Haiti, floods rushed through houses in the Cite Soleil slum, carrying away a 3-year-old boy as relatives frantically shouted for help and tried unsuccessfully to reach him through the muddy, debris-filled water. Two people were killed when their house collapsed in a mudslide in the hillside suburb of Petionville, and at least three others died in Jacmel, where officials said 150 people were trapped on rooftops awaiting aid.
Some Haitian shelters were overwhelmed by evacuees. One in Cite Soleil, guarded by U.N. troops, had one blanket for every two people. Noel is the deadliest Caribbean storm since Tropical Storm Jeanne hit Haiti in 2004, killing 1,500 people and triggering widespread flooding and mudslides before it became a hurricane. An additional 900 people were reported missing and presumed dead.
This year's deadliest hurricane, Category 5 Felix, killed at least 101 people in September, mostly along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. At 5 p.m. Eastern, Noel's center was about 240 miles southeast of Miami. The storm was nearly stationary, but was expected to turn to the north away from Florida later in the day and speed away from the U.S. over the Bahamas. It had top sustained winds near 50 miles per hour, up from 40 miles per hour earlier in the day.
Eastern Cuba got soaked but apparently escaped major damage. It also was raining in the Bahamas, where authorities closed most government offices and lines formed at grocery stores and gas stations in Nassau, the capital.
Rough surf warnings were in effect for much of South Florida. Waves were pounding beaches in the Miami area, and residents of a waterfront condominium in South Palm Beach were urged to evacuate after the surf destroyed a retaining wall damaged by another storm. Forecasters said the rain would likely miss drought-stricken Georgia, Alabama and other southeastern states.
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