Noel, tropical storm hit the Caribbean Islands pretty hard this past week. It caused mudslides and widespread flooding. There were many deaths, in Haiti, Jamaica, Bahamas and the Dominic Republic suffered the most. Noel dumped inches of water at a time and devastated all the areas with flooding anywhere it landed. There were even rough surf warnings in southern Florida. The waves were so high, they were pounded the beaches in Miami. The Dominican President, Leonel Fernandez, declared a state of emergency for the next 30 days. He asked for help and as many volunteers that could get to the Island. This storm caused an estimated 30 million in damages to the Dominican plantations.
Noel was called a tropical storm, but it was more like a hurricane. It has been one of the deadliest storms in the Caribbean’s since 2004. For the Atlantic region, Noel is the second deadliest of the 2007 season. Hurricane Felix, category 5, was the worst. Noel’s center point was about 110 miles southwest of Nassau, Bahamas and about 175 miles southeast of Miami. It had winds of 60 mph and even stronger gusts of wind then that. If this was labeled only a tropical storm, then I would not want to be in the Caribbean when a hurricane hits.
My opinion was that this was more than just a tropical storm. To devastate all of these islands and kill many people, this should have been called a hurricane. There are many volunteers needed to help these people and the islands to get back into shape. It will take along time for them to even get their plantations, which is where they make most of their money, back to a monetary state. Refugees had to be evacuated and go into schools for shelter. The storm killed at least 66 people in the Dominican Republic and 40 in Haiti and one in Jamaica. For me, I feel this storm was worse than Hurricane Felix, which killed 101 people in September.
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