Biggest dam complex drained on flood fears

Santo Domingo.- The Emergency Operations Center (COE) issued flash floods and mudslide warnings for Monseñor Noel, La Vega, Sanchez Ramirez and Santiago provinces and ordered forced evacuations in high risk zones, prior to draining the latter’s Tavera-Bao-Lopez Angostura dams complex in Baitoa, Friday afternoon.

COE director Juan Manuel Méndez said advisories are still in effect for nine other provinces, as flash floods from days of downpours have damaged 414 houses, forcing more than 2,000 people from their homes and into shelters in La Vega, Espaillat and Montecristi provinces.

The official specified that residents in San Cristóbal, Villa Altagracia, Monte Plata, Espaillat, and Duarte provinces, especially the Lower Yuna River Basin, should be alert to COE’s emergency bulletins.