(The Weather Channel) -Tropical Storm Laura knocked out power, washed out roads and is being blamed for at least eight deaths as Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico were battered by high winds and flooding Saturday into Sunday.
At least five people died in Haiti, according to the country’s civil protection authority.
“I share the sorrow of the families whose loved ones were killed on August 23 when Tropical Storm Laura passed through the country,” Prime Minister Jovenel Moise said in a Twitter post Sunday afternoon. “I urge the population to respect the instructions of the authorities to protect themselves from the damage that this bad weather could cause.”
Three people in the Dominican Republic were also reported killed.
Haiti’s civil protection authority said on social media that the dead there included two women, two men and a 10-year-old girl. The girl was killed when a tree fell on a home in Anse-à-Pitres, which is along the southern coast on the border with the Dominican Republic.
The agency said evacuations were ongoing Sunday morning.
Video posted by the civil protection authority showed a torrent of muddy water rushing under a building.
The storm left more than 1 million people without power in the Dominican Republic, where officials used megaphones to urge residents to evacuate.
The dead included a 44-year-old woman and her 7-year-old son who died in the capital city of Santo Domingo when their home collapsed, el Commercio reported, citing information provided by the Emergency Operations Center.
Flooding caused several homes to collapse in Santo Domingo. More than 1,000 people were evacuated across the country.
The flooding also cut off more than 120 isolated communities, El Caribe reported.
Video posted to social media showed transformers popping.
Earlier, the storm brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to Puerto Rico, leaving about 200,000 homes and businesses without power Saturday night. More than 10,000 had lost water, the Associated Press reported.
The storm brought wind gusts up to 67 mph and dumped 3 to 6″ of rain in southern and eastern Puerto Rico.
River flooding trapped two people along the rapidly rising Toro Negro River in Ciales, Puerto Rico. The pair were reportedly rescued Saturday evening, El Neuvo Dia reported.
That rainfall also triggered several landslides, including one that closed a road, the paper reported.
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez declared a state of emergency and warned residents to stay inside.
Laura was expected to impact Cuba and then move north into the Gulf of Mexico.
