Subtropical Storm OLGA was Late Season Tropical Depression 94

[Lambada]

According to Clave Digital, the opening of the dam started Tuesday afternoon but the waters didn't rise until the early hours of the morning (Tues night/Wed. morning). 'El desagüe de la presa se inició este martes en la tarde, pero fue en la madrugada cuando se desbordaron las aguas. Según explicaron las autoridades, fue preciso liberar la de Tavera a una intensidad de 5 mil metros cúbicos de agua por segundo.'
Autoridades de Santiago confirman 7 muertos; hay decenas de personas desaparecidas
So.........no-one realised Tuesday afternoon that if they put an extra 5000 cubic metres per second (or even per minute) of water into the river that it wasn't going to flood.............?
Not all the papers are reporting the opening of the dam - Clave, El Nuevo Diario (link in previous post) & Hoy are
Bienvenidos al Hoy Digital
but El Caribe, Diario Libre & Listin Diario don't appear to be, yet.
Noticias - Aumentan**a siete* las *vÃ*ctimas por la tormenta Olga en Santiago

Tormenta Olga - Autoridades informan que son al menos siete los muertos y 2,500 casas afectadas; Presidente irá a Santiago

[Lambada]

More pics of Santiago, this one has circles where people are up trees etc. Click on 'paginafea's photostream' in pink for the rest of the pics.
tormenta_olga_santiago on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

and a video to bring home speed of water
YouTube - tormenta olga en santiago de los caballeros
this one taken last night
YouTube - TORMENTA OLGA EN REPUBLICA DOMINICANA

[Chip]

I just got finished watching an interview of the governor of Santiago and he said that they had been watching the Tavares resevoir closely since Sunday but that an immense amount of rain fell last night caused the officials to have to discharge water from the dam in order that it would not fail. Of course he didn't mention one word about warning the Santiago pueblo. He made it seem like they didn't have any choice, but the fact is it takes time for water to release and make it's way downstream, something apparently the press didn't seem to pick up on.

Does anybody know from the reports if thay had addressed this issue - lack of warning. It doesn't take a whole lot to call the police station at the fortaleza and have them send a few guys down there with a bullhorn. I know many people were not warned at all according to the interviews that are showing on tv.

[Ringo]

Our place in Sousa has only minor tree damage. Power out since yesterday afternoon, inverters did fine and now charging with the gen. We are lucky.

I showed the photos above to our housekeeper, she said that she has family there and have nothing left.

We normally would give out the Dec. bonus just before Christmas... but gave it this AM...doubled to our housekeeper (her tears said it all) and caretaker. Early bonus' to the garbage collectors and pool man.

Just a thought on how to help a little, where you can.

Regards, Ringo

[frankreyes3rd]

So althought the rain was the ultimate cause of this disaster, is it really true that the Dominican Authorities were the proximate cause?
If so, I am ashamed.
Dominican Republic is better than this.

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by Chip

Does anybody know from the reports if thay had addressed this issue - lack of warning.

Not seen much in papers so far about lack of warning - El Nacional probably comes closest.
El Nacional, la voz de todos

El Nacional, la voz de todos

This report says COE & Governor blame flooding on dam opening
El Nacional, la voz de todos
But people are sending videos to the blogs for example Remolacha has this one taken at 5.30am from the Taveras
YouTube - La presa Taveras suelta

www.Remolacha.net

[SantiagoDR]

There was one helicopter there this morning, but he just seemed to be flying around in circles over dry land for the most part.


Electric here is still out since around 10-11pm last night, gives a whole new meaning to our 24/7 plan.

HB, is the electric back in your area?
A friend downtown area saids her´s is still out.

Wondering how wide spread the outage is.

Any word on problems with Coraasan(sp), this morning heard that the flood wiped out a major piece of their water system.

SantiagoDR

[Chip]

We have power here in Gurabo still. I lament the thought of being without water again. Of course this pails in comparison to the poor people down in the low lying areas.

[SantiagoDR]

Originally Posted by Chip

We have power here in Gurabo still. I lament the thought of being without water again. Of course this pails in comparison to the poor people down in the low lying areas.

Maybe you can run an extension cord over to Mr Mike´s ( 2:36 pm )

Originally Posted by MrMike

Power was fine in my area till about 5 minutes ago. Hope it comes back soon. My night shift employees dont want to come to work because they are afraid they wont be able to make it home later, the streets are in such a mess.

Had to take up a collection today for one of my employees who's whole house washed away in the night.

[Chip]

It appears the authorities sent police and fireman yesterday to evacuate the people at least as early as in the afternoon - this from my brother in law. He saw that on channel 53 or 55 in Santiago last night. I need to start watching the new regularily myself. This somewhat makes sense as there are so far to date little amount of deaths given the amount of area flooded.

However, there is some discrepancy because I saw some people on the news say all of sudden at three in morning that waters came into his house. It could be that the water level exceeded the officials estimates.