AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Oct 23, SPA-- Tropical Storm Alpha drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains Sunday, sending rivers crashing over their banks and threatening to trigger deadly flooding and mudslides in low-lying areas already saturated by days of heavy showers, AP reported. Alpha formed south of the Dominican Republic on Saturday, becoming the record-breaking 22nd named storm of the 2005 Atlantic season. It rumbled ashore near the southern Dominican town of Barahona with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kmh), dousing the region with heavy showers. The storm was later downgraded to a tropical depression after passing over the mountainous zone near the Dominican border with Haiti. Forecasters warned it could regain strength as it moves over open water toward the Bahamas. In Haiti, authorities closed the airport because of heavy rain but had no immediate reports of injuries or deaths _ though it was not possible to contact remote communities that are considered particularly vulnerable, said Abel Nazaire of the country's Risk and Disaster Management agency. A rain-swollen river overflowed its banks in the southern town of Jacmel, flooding some areas and forcing an unknown number of residents into shelters, said civil protection director Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste. «The population there is facing big difficulties. We have begun evacuations,» she said. At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), the center of the depression was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south-southeast of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas and moving toward the northwest at nearly 15 mph (24 kph). Maximum sustained winds were nearly 35 mph (55 kmh). A tropical storm warning remained in effect for the southeast Bahamian islands and for the Turks and Caicos. Heavy rain was reported throughout the Dominican Republic and authorities had ordered the evacuation of some 30,000 people from areas prone to flooding, said Jose Luis German, a spokesman for the country's Emergency Operations Committee. About 1,000 people were in shelters. Civil authorities with megaphones walked through low-lying neighborhoods of San Juan de Maguana _ which was badly damaged by Hurricane George in 1998 _ and urged people to leave. Authorities reported moderate flooding in several low-lying communities in the southern Dominican Republic.
