Hurricane Threatens Caribbean
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BARAHONA, Dominican Republic — Tropical Storm Iris strengthened into a hurricane Saturday, triggering mudslides that killed three people in the Dominican Republic and lashing neighboring Haiti with winds and rains as it threatened to hit Jamaica.
Iris is the first hurricane to menace Caribbean islands this season.
In the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, on the south coast, heavy rain caused a mudslide Saturday that destroyed a home under construction. Parts of the collapsed structure slid and crushed a small house, killing the three people inside--a 27-year-old woman and her daughters, ages 8 and 3.
A separate mudslide in the same neighborhood caused another house to collapse, slightly injuring two men, said Henry Peralta, spokesman for the Civil Defense Force.
Thirty-five families were evacuated from several low-lying neighborhoods, he said.
At 8 p.m., Iris--packing maximum sustained winds of 75 mph--was moving west about 60 miles south of the island of Hispaniola, which is divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
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