PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Tropical Storm Emily brushed past Puerto Rico and headed Wednesday toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where more than 630,000 people are still without shelter after last year’s earthquake.
A “steady shield of rain” should reach the island of Hispaniola shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti around noon Wednesday and the rainfall should worsen by late afternoon, said John Dlugoenski, senior meteorologist with Accuweather.com.
“The biggest threat to lives is probably the flooding,” Dlugoenski said.
But it appears the worst of the storm will largely spare Haitian capital, where most of the quake victims are sheltered.
Michel Davison of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said parts of the Dominican Republic could see up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain over the next 36 hours. Up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) is expected in rural Haiti and up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) in the capital.
Civil defense officials and the military in the Dominican Republic have already begun moving people out of high-risk zones ahead of the storm. Haitian authorities urged people to conserve food and safeguard their belongings.
In Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, Jislaine Jean-Julien, a 37-year-old street merchant displaced by the January 2010 earthquake, said she was
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