SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — A concrete wall along a street in the Dominican Republic’s capital that collapsed over the weekend, killing nine more people in heavy rain, was poorly designed, experts said Monday. .
The Caribbean country’s government is under scrutiny, and experts say they warned more than 20 years ago about the wall’s existence and the lack of efforts to fix it.
“It has weaknesses in the design,” civil engineer Cristian Rojas told The Associated Press. “No anchors were put in place and that’s why the wall collapsed. “
Rojas, former president of the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors, said the force of the water in a flooded adjacent avenue, combined with the type of wall that was built, led to the collapse.
Dominican geologist Osiris de León recalled that the first warnings about the wall were issued more than two decades ago. He published an article in December 1999 on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which the newspaper El Siglo quoted the school recommending that the wall be rebuilt. because it cracked and “could fall and cause a tragic accident. “
The collapse occurred Saturday in Santo Domingo when a portion of the wall that runs along the heavily transited 27 of February Avenue fell in one piece, crushing cars and their occupants, authorities said.
Among those affected were Puerto Rico District Attorney Michael Orozco, his wife, Maria Nereida Martinez, and their in-laws, according to Javier Rivera, president of the island’s Prosecutors’ Association. Martinez was pregnant.
“Comrade Orozco spent a glorious time privately with his family and, as a committed young lawyer, a long and bright future awaited him,” Rivera said.
Also killed was Dominican Police Gen. Eduardo Cabrera Castillo, authorities said.
Andres Matos, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Works, rejected accusations that the government had failed to clean up the wall and close the infrastructure.
“These tunnels and viaducts require constant maintenance,” Matos told the AP. He attributed the collapse to other reasons but declined to provide details.
“The ministry is ordering a deep, structuralist investigation, which implies that we should not get ahead of the causes,” he said.
The collapse occurred as a tropical disturbance moved through the western Caribbean and lashed the Dominican Republic with heavy rains over the weekend. Authorities said at least 24 other people were killed, adding those who were crushed by the wall.
The typhoon ripped the zinc roofs off many homes and isolated a dozen communities, the government said.
Authorities in neighboring Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, said four other people had died and two others were missing. Dozens of people remained in shelters after the typhoon flooded many homes and isolated several communities, they said.
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Associated Press reporter Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.