Authorities in the Dominican Republic fanned out across the Caribbean country on Thursday to evaluate the damage Tropical Storm Franklin inflicted on crops and homes after causing heavy flooding that killed at least one person and left two others missing.
More than 540 homes were affected by the storm, according to preliminary government figures, and six communities were cut off by heavy rains.
Crews evacuated 280 people to higher ground ahead of the storm, and another 351 residents sought safety in government shelters.
Among them was Domingo Ogando Figuereo, who took shelter in a communal center in the city of San Cristobal with his wife and three children.
“We hope everything turns out well,” he said as he asked authorities to prevent water from the Yubaso River near his home from backing up.
The request was echoed by Santa Rosario Rodríguez, a homemaker who went to a shelter with her two daughters when the Nigua River by her house started to swell.
“When it fills up with water, it has nowhere to go,” she said.
The storm left hundreds of thousands of people without power and more than 1.6 million without water after knocking 120 aqueducts out of service.
By Thursday, schools, businesses and government agencies were reopened as the tropical storm spun northeast of the country.
As of Thursday morning, Franklin was about 55 miles (85 kilometers) east-northeast of Grand Turk Island. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was moving north at 13 mph (20 kph) across open waters.
Franklin is expected to strengthen into a hurricane over the next few days, but poses no threat to land.
It is the seventh named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. An eighth named storm, Gert, dissipated on Tuesday.
On Aug. 10, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration updated its forecast and warned that this year’s hurricane season would be above normal. Between 14 to 21 named storms are forecast. Of those, six to 11 could become hurricanes, with two to five of them possibly becoming major hurricanes.
