Tropical Storm Jeanne hammered the Caribbean, killing four people and causing widespread damage and flooding as it hurtled west to pound the Dominican Republic, authorities said Friday.
Nine people were injured and another was reported missing late Thursday, while trees and other debris blocked roads across the region.At 1200 GMT, Jeanne was moving to the west-northwest along the Hispaniola coast at 13 kilometers (eight miles) per hour, packing winds of up to 100 kilometers (65 miles) per hour.
It was hovering over the northern Dominican Republic, some 190 kilometers (115 miles) south of Grand Turk.
"Some additional weakening is expected while the cyclone interacts with Hispaniola, but Jeanne could regain hurricane status during the next day or two," the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center warned on its website.
A tropical storm warning was issued for Hispaniola, while the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands were under a hurricane warning.
Storm-surge flooding of up to one meter (three feet) above normal tide levels was expected along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic on Friday, along with 23 to 33 centimeters (nine to 13 inches) of rain, according to the hurricane center.
Flash floods and mudslides were also likely, and the center warned that tornadoes could form over Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Jeanne was also expected to dump some 13 to 25 centimeters (five to 10 inches) of rain on Puerto Rico.
Thousands of people had been evacuated from homes in high-risk areas in the north and northwest of the Dominican Republic as Jeanne approached Hispaniola.
Cuban authorities, meanwhile, alerted residents in the eastern part of the island to brace for high winds and coastal flooding from Jeanne as it passes nearby.
Forecasters expect the storm's edge to skirt the island -- which is still recovering from being hammered by Hurricane Ivan -- on its way to the Bahamas.
Jeanne, which killed two people in the Dominican Republic, was forecast to make landfall somewhere along the US East Coast by Tuesday.
Earlier, Puerto Rico also reported two deaths when Jeanne, then a hurricane, barreled into the island on Wednesday.
As of late Thursday, some 2,450 displaced people were staying in 79 shelters throughout Puerto Rico, but boat and air transport service to Vieques and Culebra had resumed, according to a government statement. The San Juan Bay also reopened, but schools across Puerto Rico were to remain closed on Friday.
Initial government estimates cited 51.8 million dollars in damage to roads and 101 million dollars in agricultural losses, as some 215,000 acres were affected by the storm, with banana and coffee crops among the hardest hit.
Jeanne is the fourth major tropical storm or hurricane in the Caribbean in the past month, following Charley, Frances and Ivan, which blew ashore in the southern United States on Thursday.
