November 01, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 19, 1428

HAVANA, Oct 31: At least 43 people were killed in floods and landslides triggered by tropical storm Noel as it struck Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and tore across Cuba on Wednesday.

After drenching Hispaniola, an island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Noel late on Tuesday moved slowly across the Cuban interior.

It left at least 30 people dead and 15 reported missing in the Dominican Republic, and threatened to cause more floods and mudslides across the region, already drenched by weeks of rainfall.

The Dominican Republic’s National Emergency Committee said nearly 20,000 people had to evacuate their homes across the country.

There were at least 13 storm-related deaths in Haiti, including a 14-year old girl and her mother who witnesses said were killed when an uprooted tree crushed their house in the capital.

Authorities in the impoverished and vulnerable Caribbean nation evacuated 3,000 people from their homes.

Heavy rain swept away and destroyed homes in three departments, said Marie Alta Jean Baptiste, head of the country’s civil protection agency.

The storm caused authorities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti to shut down airports.

Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis said $1.5 million had been set aside to assist storm victims.

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez convened an emergency cabinet meeting and announced a three million dollar relief package for storm victims.

In Cuba, Civil Defence officials said that 2,000 people along the storm’s path were evacuated, with half going to the city of Guantanamo, and the other half to Holguin.

Cuba’s Institute of Meteorology said that much of the soil along Noel’s path was already saturated from previous heavy rainfall, and to be on the lookout for flooding.

Heavy rain from the storm also forced 250 people to evacuate in Panama.

As of 0900 GMT on Wednesday the centre of Noel was located about 85km northwest of Camanguey, Cuba, and about 335km southwest of Nassau, in the Bahamas, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said.

The storm was moving towards the northwest at about 11km per hour, and is gradually expected to turn north.

Heavy rain from Noel is “expected to cause life-threatening flash-floods and mudslides” in Cuba and the island of Hispaniola, the Hurricane Centre said.—AFP