Attachments
Date of event
23-08-2023
What happened, where and when?
Initially, between 2 and 4 June 2023, the Dominican Republic experienced numerous incidents of urban and rural flooding, river overflowing, and landslides. The National Meteorological Office (ONAMET, by its initials in Spanish) attributed these events to the presence of a trough at various levels of the troposphere, along with the passage of a tropical wave over the Caribbean Sea. These weather phenomena led to increased humidity and instability, resulting in heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, and strong wind gusts. The affected areas spanned several provinces, including Azua, Barahona, Bahoruco, Dajabón, Elías Piña, Espaillat, Independencia, La Vega, Pedernales, Santiago, and Santiago Rodríguez.
The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) issued nationwide alerts based on this information (1). By 9 June, the EOC informed that the tropical wave affecting the Dominican Republic had moved away from the country and was currently positioned southwest of Haiti. However, the National Meteorological Office (ONAMET) cautioned that localized rainfall could still occur in certain areas of the country due to the prevailing instability. Furthermore, the provinces affected by the floods during early June faced additional vulnerabilities exacerbated by the passage of Tropical Storm Franklin. On 22 August, the Dominican Republic EOC through the information message #1 informed that TS Franklin was situated within the Caribbean Sea, poised to generate robust winds and heavy rainfall over Hispaniola and Puerto Rico at least until the following day. The Dominican Red Cross rapid response teams were mobilized in coordination with the national Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at the main office in Santo Domingo. The mobile teams have been complementing civil defense efforts by assisting in both preventive and mandatory evacuations.
On 24 August, the EOC reported through information message #7 that the direct effects of TS Franklin have ceased over the Dominican Republic, such as intense downpours, strong winds, and storm surge, due to the distance and predicted path of this tropical cyclone. At that point, Franklin was already located 235 kilometers north/northeast of Puerto Plata (2). Initial reports from branches of the Dominican Red Cross located in both the northern and southern provinces and situation reports from the country's Disaster management system indicated varying degrees of damage to residential homes, businesses, crops, and livestock. Additionally, as a precautionary measure, essential services such as water, telecommunications, and electricity were temporarily suspended, the same as the previous storm that affected in June.