PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Heavy rain pounded southwestern areas of the Dominican Republic Wednesday evening as Tropical Storm Emily stalled offshore. But the the fifth named storm of the Atlantic season was expected to eventually resume a path that would also take it over neighboring Haiti.
At 8 p.m. ET, Emily was about 75 miles southeast of Beata Island, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, the hurricane center stated.
In Haiti, more than 630,000 people are still without shelter after last year's earthquake.
In the capital of Port-au-Prince, Francois Prophete, who was shoring up the steel roof of his one-room cinder block home, said most people had few options in a nation where the vast majority are desperately poor. "We can't afford to do much," he said.
The worst rainfall is expected to miss the Haitian capital, but it could be enough to cause severe flooding and increased misery. A U.N. aid group distributed cholera prevention kits to help fight the waterborne disease, and the government set up a network of shelters.
Parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti could see up to 20 inches of rain within 36 hours. Up to 6 inches are forecast in Port-au-Prince.
Emily had earlier dropped up to 10 inches of rain in parts of Puerto Rico, though it never got within 100 miles of the island, the U.S. National Weather Service said.
The storm's current track puts it on a path to hit the Florida peninsula by late Friday or early Saturday.
Civil defense officials and the military in the Dominican Republic moved people out of high-risk zones. Haitian authorities urged people to conserve food and safeguard their belongings.
In Port-au-Prince, Jislaine Jean-Julien, a 37-year-old street merchant displaced by the January 2010 earthquake, said she was praying the storm would pass her flimsy tent without knocking it over.
"For now, God is the only savior for me," Jean-Julien said at the edge of a crowded encampment facing the quake-destroyed National Palace. "I would go some place else if I could but I have no place else to go."
Haitian emergency authorities set aside a fleet of 22 large white buses in the event they needed to evacuate people from flooded areas. Emergency workers would then bus the people to dozens of schools, churches and other buildings that will serve as shelters.
"We're working day and night to be able to respond quickly in case we have any disasters," said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's Civil Protection Agency.
A slow-moving storm that triggered mudslides and floods in Haiti killed at least 28 people in June.
Story: Start of Atlantic hurricane season has been busyThe United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti notified its 11,500 troops to be on standby in case they need to respond. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies also, put emergency teams on standby, which have access to relief supplies already in place for up to 125,000 people in seaside towns throughout the country.
In the Dominican Republic's southern tourist districts, workers at hotels and restaurants gathered up umbrellas, tables, chairs, and anything else that might be blown away.
Capt. Frank Castillo, dock master of the Marina Casa de Campo in the southeastern tourist city of La Romana, and his crew helped boat owners secure their vessels in slips or pull them ashore.
In Puerto Rico, there were no reports of major damage or injuries and no immediate demand for the nearly 400 schools that were converted into emergency shelters around the island.
Gov. Luis Fortuno had declared a state of emergency and most government offices were closed. Ahead of the storm, people cleared water and other emergency supplies from store shelves and tourists fled the small Puerto Rican islands of Culebra and Vieques.
But most of the island saw no more than sporadic gusts and showers.
NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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