MIAMI, (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Emily killed four people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, authorities said yesterday, as remnants of the storm drifted over the Caribbean with a “high chance” of restrengthening into a tropical cyclone.
Emily, the fifth named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated Thursday as it approached mountainous Hispaniola island, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The storm’s leftovers posed no threat to oil and gas production facilities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and most forecasts showed the system keeping well off the southeast U.S. coast.
But authorities said Emily could still pack a punch after its heavy rainfall killed three in the Dominican Republic, two of whom were swept away by a swollen river in Higuey, a small town about 100 miles (160 km) east of the capital Santo Domingo. At least one other person died in neighboring Haiti in flooding in the sprawling southern city of Les Cayes.
Thousands of Dominicans and Haitians were forced to evacuate their homes because of Emily, with dozens of villages cut off by floodwaters, officials said.
