Flood-prone Haiti and the Dominican Republic received good news Tuesday, as it appeared the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season had mostly missed their shared Caribbean island. The two countries that share the island of Hispaniola are frequent victims of storms, with many impoverished people living along rivers, but there were no reports of major damage from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ana. The storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression before largely dissipating ahead of its reaching Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but its rains were still a possible threat. “The rain fell, but it did not hit anywhere very hard,” said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, the director of Haiti's civil protection department. Haiti is particularly vulnerable to catastrophic flooding because most of the country's trees have been cut down for fuel and the bare, mountainous terrain cannot prevent water from descending in torrents. A series of storms last year killed hundreds of people and left thousands struggling to find food. Meanwhile, authorities warned islands in the northeastern Caribbean Sea to closely monitor the progress of Hurricane Bill, which was expected to become a major storm in the next few days, with winds above 177 kilometers per hour (kph). Bill, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, was about 1,140 kilometers east of the islands with maximum sustained winds near 165 kph, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Forecasters said the storm appeared likely to move north on a track that would take it toward Bermuda by the end of the week as a major hurricane. The U.S. Air Force will send a hurricane aircraft to gather more information about Hurricane Bill later on Tuesday, the NHC said.
