"The main thing is to save lives," says Abinader

Santo Domingo.- President Luis Abinader warned this Thursday that in the face of the effects of storm Melissa and the heavy rainfall that accompanies it, "the main thing is to save lives", taking measures such as maintaining the partial suspension of the working day or the closure of classrooms throughout the country.

"The main thing is to save lives. The risk is the enormous amount of rain, it's a storm that has practically become stationary," the president pointed out.

Abinader also announced that he will continue, along with the various public bodies, in permanent session, and called on Dominicans living in vulnerable areas to leave and safeguard their lives. "Only essential services remain active and working. Among them pharmacies, food sales, supermarkets, fuels and transportation," said Abinader. From the total of 32 provinces in the country, the Emergency Operations Committee (COE) declared 25 of them on alert, twelve of them on red alert, three more than yesterday, including the capital and others also located on the Caribbean coast. In addition, ten territories are on yellow alert and three on green.

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In areas of the Dominican Republic's southern coast, according to the general director of the Dominican Institute of Meteorology (Indomet), Gloria Ceballos, accumulations are expected for Friday that "could exceed 150 mm". According to the authorities, the effect of the rain in the coming hours will be more dangerous because the ground is saturated after days of rainfall and flooding could occur more easily.