At least eleven people were killed and 13 were missing as Tropical Storm Noel lashed the Caribbean island of Hispaniola shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, officials said on Monday.
As Noel made its way across Haiti, drenching the vulnerable country and stirring fears of dangerous floods and landslides, authorities in the Dominican Republic blamed at least eleven deaths on the storm's passage since the weekend. Another 13 people were reported as missing.
Several communities across the country were cut off by flooded rivers as bridges reportedly collapsed in several areas.
Among the fatalities were two brothers killed when a wall of their home collapsed on them in the Cienaga area, on the banks of the swollen Ozama river, the National Emergency agency said.
The storm also caused authorities to shut down the international airport in the capital, Santo Domingo.
Dominican President Leonel Fernandez convened an emergency cabinet meeting to deal with the storm damage, as weather forecasters expected another 24-48 hours of rain.
In the neighboring island of Cuba, authorities prepared shelters, food supplies and medical facilities as it braced for potential flooding and evacuations eastern provinces that have been hit by heavy rain since early October.
At 8:00 pm (2400 GMT), the center of the storm was about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Cuba's eastern tip, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
It packed maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers (50 miles) per hour with higher gusts, the NHC said.
The storm was expected to dump as much as 50 centimeters (20 inches) of rain on Hispaniola and up to 38 cm (15 inches) over Cuba.
"These rains particularly in Hispaniola are expected to cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the center said.
Tropical Storm Noel was expected to head back out to sea and move near or over the southeastern and central Bahamas or northeastern Cuba later Monday.
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