SANTO DOMINGO - Haiti's civil protection authorities said Tuesday at least 12 people had been killed recently by heavy rains.

According to reports from Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, the agency's director Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste said that 10 of the confirmed deaths were registered in some of the poorest districts in the capital, including the Cite Soleil and Carrefour areas in the southern part of the city. The middle-class Delmas district was also reported to be affected by the rains.

The official said hundreds of the 680,000 people still living in camps after the January 2010 earthquake were also affected.

On Monday, Jean-Baptiste said 56 families in the Thomazeau municipality located northeast of Port-au-Prince were evacuated due to the Azuei Lake's overflow.

The Haitian president said in a statement that the Caribbean nation's recently inaugurated new President Michel Martelly "has given instructions to the Civil Protection Direction in order to reinforce the coordination between that institution and the different aid organizations."

In the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the Hispaniola Island with Haiti, almost 30 regions have been isolated following the torrential rains. Authorities said Monday they had issued a red alert in a number of provinces, including the capital of Santo Domingo.

According to the Dominican Republic's National Office of Meteorology, the 2011 hurricane season, which officially started last Wednesday, is expected to generate at least nine major storms with hurricane potential regions in the Caribbean and Atlantic.