Toll reaches 43 as Noel rages across Caribbean

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Havana, October 31:: At least 43 people were killed in floods and landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Noel as it barreled across Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, in the Caribbean, officials said.

After drenching Hispaniola, an island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Noel late yesterday moved slowly across the Cuban interior.

It left at least 30 people dead and 15 reported missing in the Dominican Republic, and threatened to cause more floods and mudslides across the region, already drenched by weeks of rainfall.

The National Emergency Committee said nearly 20,000 people had to evacuate their homes across the country.

In Haiti, an AFP reporter in the capital city Port-au-Prince witnessed four deaths, including a 14-year old girl and her mother who were killed when an uprooted tree crushed their house.

Authorities in the impoverished and vulnerable Caribbean nation reported another nine deaths, 11 injuries and 3,000 people evacuated from their homes across the country.

Heavy rain swept away and destroyed homes in three departments, said Marie Alta Jean Baptiste, head of the country's civil protection agency.

The storm caused authorities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti to shut down airports.

Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis said USD 1.5 million had been set aside to assist storm victims.