At least 58,300 Dominicans fled their homes, some 14,500 of which were damaged, said Luis Antonio Luna, head of the Emergencies Commission.
More than three days of heavy rain have caused an estimated 30 million U.S. dollars in damages to the Dominican Republic's rice, plantain, and cacao plantations, said Minister of Economy Juan Temistocles Montas. The government will request two loans worth 100 million U.S. dollars each from the Inter-American Development Bank to help ravaged areas recover.
In Haiti civil protection crews confirmed 10 more deaths overnight, raising Haiti's toll to 34, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of the civil protection agency said.
Most of the deaths occurred in flood-drenched areas around the capital, Port-au-Prince, raising fears that the total could climb even higher as authorities reach remote towns in the Haitian countryside.
Noel is the deadliest storm in this part of the Caribbean since Tropical Storm Jeanne hit Haiti in 2004, triggering floods and mudslides that killed an estimated 3,000 people.
For the Atlantic region as a whole, Noel is the second deadliest of the 2007 season. Hurricane Felix, a monster Category 5 storm, killed at least 101 people in early September, mostly along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Honduras. (See pictures of Hurricane Felix and its aftermath.)
At 8 a.m. EDT, Noel's center was about 110 miles (180 kilometers) southwest of Nassau, Bahamas, and about 175 miles (280 kilometers) southeast of Miami. The storm was moving north at 6 miles per hour (10 kilometers per hour) but was expected to eventually turn northeast, away from Florida. It had top sustained winds near 60 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour), with stronger gusts, forecasters said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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