Attachments
A. Situation analysis
Description of the disaster
Following the passage of Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the Dominican Republic was affected by a series of hydro-meteorological events. Approximately 4,200 homes were affected, 60 were destroyed in the provinces of Puerto Plata, La Vega and Nagua, around 132 communities in the provinces of La Vega, Puerto Plata, María Trinidad Sánchez and Espaillat were cut off by the flooding, 13 bridges were damaged and 3 of the main roads were damaged. Because of increased water levels caused by the heavy rainfall, the Dams Committee was forced to release water from the Tavera Dam in the province of Santiago to prevent it from bursting; the release of water flooded communities in the provinces of Santiago, Valverde and Montecristi, while the overflowing of the Yuna River and its tributaries affected the communities of Los Peinados, Los Contreras, Los Rieles, Reforma, Aguacate, Callejón de Tilo, Las Garzas, where the flooding caused considerable damage to their rice crop.
From March 2017 until the end of April 2017, heavy rains caused extensive flood damage to the provinces affected by the November 2016 floods and extended to the southern part of the country, particularly Barahona, San Cristobal and Bahoruco. In March 2017, flooding in northern areas displaced around 1,700 people. Almost 400mm of rain fell in 24 hours in Barahona from 22 to 23 April 2017; the heavy rain was part of the same severe weather system that also caused flooding in Jamaica and Haiti, and it caused the second major flood event in two months in the Dominican Republic. These weather systems saturated the soils and increased the water flow of all the Dominican Republic’s major river basins (the Yaque del Norte, Yaque del Sur, Yuna, Nigua and Yubaso Rivers). This situation resulted in the expansion of the geographical scope of the operation and a stronger focus on relief assistance. As the appeal’s coverage continued to be low, it was decided to focus on relief response in April 2017, resulting in a corresponding reduction in the number of targeted families from 5,000 to 4,000.
In September 2017, two hurricanes caused widespread damage to the Dominican Republic; Hurricane Irma impacted the provinces of Samana, María Trinidad Sánchez, Santiago, Puerto Plata, Montecristi, Valderde and Espaillat, and less than two weeks later, Hurricane Maria caused considerable damage to agriculture and housing due to flooding in the Yaque del Norte and Yuna Bassin and wind damage in the Hato Mayor, El Seybo and Samana provinces. These hurricanes have adversely affected the implementation of the appeal activities, particularly National Society strengthening and disaster risk reduction (DRR) because the National Society once again had to focus on life-saving actions (both in preparedness and response), and it is currently managing relief efforts in the country.
Summary of the current response Through its 9 provincial branches and more than 150 volunteers, the Dominican Red Cross worked with its headquarters staff and the IFRC to adapt the response to the evolving situation on the ground. In November 2016, the floods affected mainly northern provinces (Maria Trinidad Sanchez, Duarte, Santiago, and Montecristi), and in March 2017, additional flooding affected the country’s southern provinces (Barahona, San Cristobal and Santo Domingo) and the northern Provinces that were previously affected. The humanitarian assistance provided to affected communities was adapted to this situation to provide the maximum amount of relief to the population as well as a bigger coverage area.
The Dominican Red Cross has assisted 3,287 families (12,803 persons) in 51 communities in the 7 affected provinces.
The table below provides a breakdown of the 12,803 people that were assisted:
The relief operations in relation to the November 2016 and April 2017 floods have been finalized at this time. The Low coverage of the appeal has had a negative impact on the ability to implement the planned recovery actions, particularly in the livelihoods sector. The priority for the finalization of the Appeal is to implement the disaster risk reduction activities and capacity building actions to improve the readiness of branches and volunteers of the Dominican Republic Red Cross. The four-month extension will allow the National Society to implement this activities outside the hurricane season and after finalization of the Hurricane Irma & Maria DREF operation.