SANTO DOMINGO.– The Dominican Republic is changing its approach to disaster risk management by preparing for calamities rather than emphasizing recovery efforts after hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other catastrophes that have killed thousands and cost the country billions of dollars in damages. 

According to sources, while large multinationals in the country are said to follow state-of-the-art risk management and disaster preparedness procedures, the government, like many others in Caribbean countries, has not been aggressive in protecting the nation's communities and infrastructure from nature. 

The Dominican Republic is a frequent target of natural disasters. Hurricanes and windstorms have killed and injured more than 15,000 and cost around $2.6 billion in insured and uninsured damages in the past 75 years, according to the World Health Organization's Collaborative Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. 

Floods have killed and injured around 3,800 over that same period and cost $44.7 million in damages, the research center says. 

Disaster preparedness help has arrived in the Dominican Republic in the form of a $5 million loan and technical assistance from the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank, which provides lending, research and other services to Caribbean and Latin American countries. 

Under a program executed by the Dominican Republic's National Planning Office, the money will be used to help develop a national strategy for risk management aimed at reducing losses from natural disasters. 

The first beneficiaries of the program will be several municipalities and schools.