Tropical Storm Olga Blamed In 14 Deaths

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Tropical Storm Olga triggered floods and landslides on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola Wednesday, killing at least 13 people and forcing thousands to flee their homes, authorities said. One person also died in Puerto Rico.

Hardest hit was the northern province of Santiago in the Dominican Republic, where heavy rains forced authorities to release water from a near-capacity dam into the already swollen Yaque River. The provincial governor said at least seven towns were completely flooded.

People complained on local radio that they were not warned of the water release from the dam, and officials acknowledged it might have caused some of the 10 deaths reported in the province.

"We have an emergency situation. It's a catastrophe," Gov. Jose Izquierdo said.

Olga weakened to a tropical depression Wednesday afternoon, but rain continued to fall from a system that forecasters said could bring as much as 10 inches to some parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola.

As of 10 p.m. EST, Olga's center was about 80 miles northwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 235 miles east of Grand Cayman, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm was moving west at speeds near 13 mph, the NHC said.

At least 11 people were killed and 5,000 evacuated in the Dominican Republic, said Ismael Matias, planning chief of the Dominican emergency operations center.

An elderly woman and a 3-year-old boy were reported killed in northern Haiti, where poor infrastructure could delay reporting on the storm's aftermath for days, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of Haiti's civil protection department.

The storm was also blamed for one death in Puerto Rico, where a rain-triggered avalanche buried an SUV.