THE Dominican government has no plans to leave people behind, but it still doesn’t plan to force people out of their own homes if they don’t want to leave.
The island’s Emergency Operations Centre has been forced to grapple with more than 20 people in one particular village who have refused to accept rescue or evacuation since the country was lashed by Tropical Storm Erika a week ago, and in pockets of affected areas across the small island, others aren’t budging from the villages where they were born and raised.
Mervin Paul, the island’s chief information officer, said officials have made it clear to search and rescue personnel that force should not be used if residents don’t want to leave their homes, no matter how unsafe conditions have been deemed.
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