[3][1] Cities in flood-plain areas like Mapou, Haiti, and Jimani, of the Dominican Republic, experienced over 250 mm (10 inches) of rain between May 24 and 25, causing the Solie River to overflow, resulting in devastating environmental and infrastructure damage.

[1][4] With hundreds dead and thousands more displaced in Mapou and Jimani, the death toll was at its highest in decades, partly because of deforestation.

[6] These floods were preceded by two weeks of persistent rain in the Caribbean area, which eventually caused the landslides that killed many people.

[10] In fact, the destruction present at Jimaní was so bad that Dominican president Hipolito Mejia declared a national day of mourning after seeing the effects of the storm.

[5] Deforestation, construction, and mismanaged land use have led to a deterioration in natural barriers such as mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, and sand dunes, further debilitating Haiti's ability to withstand intense storms and to provide emergency services.

[11] The damage to Haiti's already weak infrastructure and lack of natural barriers intensive efforts to secure food, water, and humanitarian relief required.

[15] However, the low had characteristics of a subtropical cyclone, with a closed atmospheric circulation and extensive convection extending to the northeast of the system.

The interaction between the low and a high pressure area over the southwestern Atlantic Ocean produced winds of around 25 mph (40 km/h) across the region.

[21] Widespread flooding and rising rivers had serious consequences in several parts of the country, including the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, and the town of Fond Verrettes.

[3] Social Service of Dominican Churches (SSID) began an initial assessment of difficulty in accessing water-logged regions.

However, the damaging effects of this and subsequent disasters continuously weakened the water and sanitation infrastructure which eventually led to a major cholera outbreak in 2010.

[42] Prior to the floods, both countries had the highest Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Tuberculosis (TB) prevalence rate outside of sub-Saharan Africa.

Although the prevalence of new cases seemed low, a disruption in access to multi-level biomedical interventions led to an increase in mortality rates.

Anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), confusion and insomnia are some of the common mental health problems that occur after a flood disaster.

Small island developing States must be actively involved in adaptation and mitigation measures to address long-term climate change.

During this period, targeted investments in high-priority vulnerabilities can lead to no-regret outcomes of high environmental and economic benefits.

[49] Structural and non-structural measures This is mainly due to the steady increase in population and economic activity in flood-prone areas.

[50] The consequences of flooding in the Caribbean are severe because of the exponential increase in urbanization of floodplains, unregulated, human-induced degradation of watersheds, lack of emergency preparedness and resilience, persistent poverty, inefficient public policies and infrastructure problems.

This will help scientists, politicians and water managers or authorities to develop appropriate policies and measures to prevent and mitigate the effects of flooding.