#TrackingMatthew: At least four reported dead in DomRep
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Officials in the Dominican Republic are reporting that at least four people died when heavy rains linked to Hurricane Matthew damaged their homes.
Emergency Operations Center coordinator Juan Manuel Mendez told a news conference Tuesday that three children were killed when the walls of their homes collapsed in a poor neighborhood in Santo Domingo. An elderly person died in a neighboring province.
That would bring the total death toll from the storm to at least seven.
Rescue agencies in the country say the downpours have destroyed at least two homes and damaged 190 others. Close to 18,000 people living in vulnerable areas have been evacuated and taken to the homes of relatives or to shelters.
Meanwhile, the US National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane watch for South Florida.
The centre issued the watch from Deerfield Beach to the Volusia/ Brevard county line.
A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area.
A tropical storm watch also is in effect from the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys northward to south of Deerfield Beach, including Lake Okeechobee.