During its brief life, Alpha moved west-northwestward and reached its peak intensity on October 23, but weakened as it neared landfall in the Dominican Republic that same day.

Alpha dumped torrential rain on the island of Hispaniola, making it the eighth wettest storm to impact poverty-stricken Haiti.

[1] Satellite images indicated that a low pressure center associated with the tropical wave formed near Barbados and moved west-northwest with increasing convective activity.

In an area of light wind shear, the convection increased and Doppler weather radar data from Puerto Rico detected a well-defined cyclonic circulation.

[1] On October 22, the area of low pressure organized into Tropical Depression Twenty-five, southeast of Hispaniola.

[8] Because of the weakening, and the strong southerly flow from nearby Hurricane Wilma, it was hard to determine whether a low-level circulation was present.

[10] On October 24 the low-level center had completely dissolved, and only a small area of convective activity persisted.

[12] Haiti was already experiencing flooding from Hurricane Wilma's passage between October 8 and 19, so the threat of more rainfall was particularly dire.

[13] The country's Centre National de Meteorologie issued weather bulletins through existing media distribution channels with clear instructions on how residences should prepare for floods and landslides.

[12] Although the storm's circulation technically made landfall near Barahona in the Dominican Republic,[1] the bulk of its impact occurred in the country's poorer neighbor, Haiti.

Gonâve Island, which had been suffering a brutal drought, was stricken by floods which overwhelmed and washed away pipes of the water draining system in Nan Baré.

[1][16] Two drowned when a river overflowed in Grande Anse and two more died after being electrocuted during flooding, one in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Carrefour and the other in the southern town of Jacmel.

[18] Nine people were killed in the Dominican Republic: two fishermen went missing at sea during the storm and the others were swept away by flood waters when rivers burst their banks in Guaricanos[19] and Puerto Plata.