Among the towns pounded by the storm were Cabarete and Sosua, part of the Puerto Plata region popular with foreign tourists.
More than 5,500 people in the country were evacuated in the run-up to the storm, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of deaths. But the director of the country's Center of Emergency Operations, Juan Manuel Mendez, asked citizens Thursday to "not let down their guard" since "the worst isn't over."
Images on television showed how the fierce winds of the storm had punched holes in the windows of homes in Cabarete. In Nagua, a town in an agricultural area further to the east, broken branches and garbage had been hurled onto the boardwalk and streets near the beach, according to images on social media.
Eye of Irma moving WNW off the northern coast of Dominican Republic. #prwx #usviwx pic.twitter.com/lys3bUSEHW
โ NWS San Juan (@NWSSanJuan) September 7, 2017
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