ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC) – Heavy rains today caused widespread flooding and damage to several homes, particularly in the southern part of Dominica, Acting Prime Minister Reginald Austrie has said.
Austire, who chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting that was also attended by officials from the Office of Disaster preparedness, said that teams were now assessing the damage caused as a result of the inclement weather.
“About one third of the island has been affected, mainly towards the south. There have been some issues in the east, in Castle Bruce and Good Hope…but most of the damage is in fact concentrated in the southern side of the island,” Austrie told the state-owned DBS radio.
The Meteorological Office said that the inclement weather was due to moisture and instability associated with a trough system and warned that Dominica and other islands in the Caribbean would be affected by isolated thunderstorms and heavy rains as well as strong winds.
They urged people residing in low-lying areas to prepare to be evacuated especially as the land has been heavily saturated as a result of the rains.
The radio station reported that many people in the south of the island were forced to walk to the capital to complete their Christmas shopping and Austrie said “there had been some infrastructural damage.
“The roads in the Roseau Valley and some areas towards south Soufriere are still cut off and we are now heading off to the field to do an assessment,” he said, adding that most of the homes had been damaged in Bath Estate, just on the outskirts of the capital.
