Death toll from Dominican Republic downpour rises to 30 Santo Domingo, Nov 23 (AFP) Nov 23, 2023 The death toll in the Dominican Republic from days of torrential rain has risen to 30, authorities said Thursday. The Caribbean nation's Emergency Operations Center said in a bulletin that "due to heavy rains, urban and rural flooding, and the collapse of bridges and a viaduct, around 30 people have lost their lives." The bulletin described the downpour, which began last weekend, as the heaviest rainfall event in the history of the Dominican Republic. In one particularly deadly incident, a wall collapsed Sunday onto vehicles traveling on a major avenue in the capital, Santo Domingo, killing nine people. On Monday, the Dominican government declared three days of national mourning. Dozens of communities in the country of 11 million became unreachable by road due to damaged infrastructure, with thousands of people rescued by civil protection crews. As of Thursday, only one of the country's 32 provinces remained on alert for possible flash flooding and landslides. At the end of August, the passage of storm Franklin through the Dominican Republic left two dead and one missing, and forced the evacuation of some 3,000 people from areas in dangerous conditions. |
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