GENEVA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations food agency appealed on Friday for $4 million to help tens of thousands of people forced to flee their homes in the Dominican Republic after Tropical Storm Olga unleashed flash floods.

The death toll from the storm, the second to hit in just over a month, reached at least 19, mostly drownings, Dominican officials said on Thursday.

"We need $4 million to help victims over the next six months," Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman of the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP), told a news briefing in Geneva. The WFP would issue details of the appeal later in the day, she said.

Some 37,000 people had fled their homes in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island Hispaniola with Haiti, Berthiaume said.

Olga killed three more people in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, according to a statement issued by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The majority of the Dominican deaths were people who drowned when a river burst its banks and flooded parts of Santiago, the Dominican Republic's second-largest city, 110 miles (176 km) north of the capital Santo Domingo.

It followed another storm, Noel, which killed at least 89 people, left 42 missing and caused millions of dollars in damages to roads, farming and power and water systems. (For more information on humanitarian crises and issues visit www.alertnet.org) (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Caroline Drees)

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