Swollen rivers swept at least three people away on the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti as Tropical Storm Cristobal slowly chugged through the Atlantic on Saturday. The storm dumped heavy rain on Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southernmost islands of the Bahamas, causing landslides and flooding over the weekend. 

In the Dominican Republic, a man drowned when he tried to drive his pickup truck across a rushing river in Hato Mayor, a province northeast of the capital of Santo Domingo. Juan Manuel Mendez, the country's emergency operations director, said the death was due to the "regrettable recklessness of this driver."

Flooding damaged more than 800 homes and cut off 23 towns, displacing over 4,000 people, according to the Jamaica Observer. 

(MORE: Where is Cristobal Headed?)

In neighboring Haiti, two residents were swept away late Saturday by a river that burst its banks in the western port town of Saint Marc. "We're still looking for the bodies," said Luckecy Mathieu, a local civil protection coordinator. Flooding was reported in several areas and the Haitian Red Cross was on the ground, Haiti Libre reports. 

In the Bahamas and the British Caribbean dependency of the Turks and Caicos, residents hunkered down as drenching rain moved over the islands. There were no reports of damage in the Bahamas by late Sunday morning, but authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands reported extensive flooding in low-lying areas. 

Before strengthening into a storm, the system lashed Puerto Rico, downing trees and power lines and leaving more than 23,500 people without power and 8,720 without water. There were a handful of reported landslides.

Police said in a statement that a small bridge collapsed Saturday in the central town of Barranquitas, isolating some 25 families in the area. No one was injured.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Cristobal may strengthen into a hurricane on Wednesday as the system moves over the open waters of the Atlantic. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Hurricane Arthur, July 2014