ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC):

Disaster management officials here yesterday reported widespread damage as atropical wave affected the island, triggering landslides, knocking out utilities in some areas and causing the closure of the island's main airport.

"As I speak to you, it's raining intensely and all this is associated with a tropical wave continuing all now and we can see lots of damage," Cecil Shillingford, disaster management specialist, said.

Heavy rains punctuated by thunderstorms from Sunday afternoon continued into yesterday leaving many commuters stranded in the country areas.

Shillingford said rivers were overflowing their banks and there were reports of landslides in some parts of the country.

"A lot of the rains we had for Hurricane Dean are complicating matters in that we having situations of landslides and road closures and it's pretty much all over the island," he said.

He said the challenges posed by Hurricane Dean made effects from this tropical wave very serious.

"It has to be very serious considering just coming out of Dean; that was one of my major concerns because of all the precipitation we had from Dean every where is saturated.

"Retaining walls are going down and you have situations where water is going straight through peoples homes," Shillingford told CMC.