In response to widespread destruction caused by an active low-pressure weather system moving across the Dominican Republic, national president Luis Abinader has enacted Decree 234-26, establishing a regional state of emergency across six hard-hit jurisdictions. The official measure, announced publicly on April 12, extends emergency status to the provinces of Puerto Plata, Espaillat, Valverde, Santiago, Santo Domingo, as well as the country’s National District, the capital’s administrative core.
The declaration of emergency was not an arbitrary action: it follows all formal procedural requirements laid out in the nation’s 147-02 Risk Management Law, and was prompted by urgent damage assessments submitted by two of the country’s top disaster response bodies, the Emergency Operations Center (known locally by its Spanish acronym COE) and the National Emergency Commission (CNE). Government officials confirmed that days of unrelenting heavy downpours, intense thunderstorms and gusty strong winds have left a trail of destruction across multiple sectors of the impacted regions. Critical public infrastructure, private residential housing, commercial agricultural operations and other key productive industries have all sustained significant harm that has disrupted daily life for local residents.
By formally activating the state of emergency, the Dominican government has cleared the way for faster deployment of critical assets to affected communities. The accelerated rollout of dedicated financial resources, heavy response equipment and trained disaster response teams is now authorized, with two core goals: first, to reduce the ongoing harm inflicted by the adverse weather system, and second, to restore full normal operations and daily life to the most severely impacted communities in the shortest possible timeline.