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Calle de una comunidad caribeña inundada bajo lluvia intensa, con casas de madera a ambos lados, palmeras inclinadas por el viento y ramas arrastradas por el agua
Comunidad caribeña bajo lluvias intensas, con la calle principal anegada y restos vegetales arrastrados por la corriente. · Imagen generada para EPM

Rains leave 2,675 affected and 51 communities cut off

The Emergency Operations Center report of Thursday, October 29 counts 2,675 people affected, 535 homes damaged, 51 communities cut off and 39 aqueducts out of…

--- The context --- Rainfall from a trough once again struck Dominican communities living alongside rivers and ravines. The official toll arrived two days after the Emergency Operations Center lifted its yellow alerts and kept 18 provinces and the National District at green. --- The facts --- According to the report the Emergency Operations Center issued on Thursday, October 29 at 11:30 a. m., the rains left 2,675 people affected, 535 homes damaged and 51 communities cut off, along with 39 aqueducts out of service and one bridge affected. No deaths or destroyed homes were reported, and residents who had left their houses have returned. Damage is concentrated beside rivers that burst their banks: the Soco, in Ramón Santana, left nine communities partially cut off; the Ozama, in Santo Domingo Norte, flooded about 500 homes; the Pedernales river partially isolated Los Arroyos and Hans Pitre; the Yabacao, in Monte Plata, left Mata de los Indios partially cut off, and in Barahona a fallen tree in Cañada de Papoy damaged part of a home. In Barahona, the damage took a different form: a tree fell in Cañada de Papoy and damaged part of one home, according to the point-by-point detail in the report. The same report notes that the people who had had to leave their houses have already returned, and that no home was destroyed by the rains. --- The positions --- The Dominican Institute of Meteorology expects the trough and the southeast wind to keep humidity and instability in place, though with less intense rainfall and afternoon downpours over the Central mountain range, the Cibao valley and the border zone. The same rains raised reservoirs to 62 % of capacity, according to the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources. Official guidance asks residents not to cross swollen rivers, streams or ravines, to consult their local council or Civil Defense before travelling, and to call 9-1-1 in an emergency. --- What remains unknown --- The Emergency Operations Center did not say when the 39 affected aqueducts will operate again or when access to the 51 cut-off communities will be restored. --- Unanswered questions --- When will the 39 aqueducts that went out of service work again? How soon will the 51 communities that remain cut off regain access? What support will families receive whose homes were damaged or flooded by the rising rivers? --- EPM analysis --- The vulnerability repeats: each flood isolates entire communities and interrupts drinking water across dozens of systems at once. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the absence of deaths is the best news in a toll that still leaves a clear debt toward the affected communities: 51 remain cut off and 39 aqueducts stay out of service with no public date for restoration. An emergency does not end when the water recedes; it ends when drinking water returns, access roads reopen and every damaged family receives a concrete response. Publishing those timelines, and meeting them, is now the real measure of the official response.
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