Santo Domingo, August 25 (NNN-RHC) -- One person has been swept away and 4,000 displaced when heavy rains from a newly forming tropical depression slammed into the Dominican Republic, authorities said.

Flooding near rivers and in cities also damaged more than 800 homes and cut off 23 towns, the country's emergency operations center said in its latest update. Some 4,105 people took refuge in the homes of family and friends, it added.

After passing the Dominican Republic, the storm strengthened further and was dubbed Tropical Depression Four.

It was moving towards the southeastern Bahamas, the National Hurricane Center said in its 0300 GMT Sunday bulletin, and forecast to strengthen into a tropical storm.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for much of the southeastern and central Bahamas as well as for the Turks and Caicos islands, the Miami-based center said.

It warned the torrential downpours could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially in areas of mountainous terrain, adding that the areas under threat would spread northward along the storm's path.