Storm pummels Dominican Republic
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from December 2003.
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Odette, the first named storm on record to form in the Caribbean Sea in December, dumped up to 7 inches (19 centimeters) of rain in southern areas of the country, officials said. Its remnants spun over the Atlantic Sunday and merged with a cold front.
A 58-year-old woman, Ondina Guzman, drowned early Sunday when floodwaters rushed into her riverside house, where she was sleeping along with a 25-year-old son, witnesses said. Neighbors said residents broke open the locked door and helped pull the son from waters 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep.
The woman was brought to a hospital, but it was too late, said Fausto Rodriguez, an official in San Cristobal, 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of the capital of Santo Domingo.
"She was in the house when it began to rain and we asked if she wanted to go to another house, but because it appeared there was no danger she decided to stay," said another son, Abelardo Guzman, 42, who left the house earlier to have drinks with friends.
Police also said a 41-yearold Dominican, Jose Manuel Disla, was riding a motorcycle on the outskirts of Santo Domingo when he fell in a swollen creek Saturday night and died.
More than 10,000 Dominicans were evacuated, officials said. But as sunshine returned and storm warnings were dropped, residents were allowed to return home.
About 875 people remaintained in emergency shelters Sunday, said Jose Luis German, spokesman of the emergency commission.
The storm crossed the Dominican Republic overnight, and by 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), it was merging with a cold front 150 miles (240 kilometers) east of Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The storm also felled trees in southern Haiti and forced about 110 people into shelters in Puerto Rico, where thousands were without potable water.
Odette was unusual because it formed Thursday, four days after the end of the hurricane season.
It was packing 65-mph (100-kph) winds Saturday when it reached the southern Dominican Republic. which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Dominican officials opened the floodgates of three northern dams to prevent more severe flooding.
In the neighborhood where Guzman died, people waded through mud-filled homes as they began to clean up. Many lost all their belongings. Some had furniture in the sun drying. "I had to lift my motor"cycle to the roof to save it," 17-year-old Luis Cordero said.
Laura Pereyra, who was eight months pregnant, was caught by waters that rose to her neck in minutes. "I realized that the water was reaching the furniture and I tried to remove a few things, when suddenly the house filled with water and some neighbours had to help me out," she said.
