Powerful Hurricane Dean roars toward Jamaica and Cayman Islands
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| Published on Saturday, August 18, 2007 |
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By Carlos Barria
KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - Hurricane Dean was on the verge of becoming a rare Category 5 storm on Saturday as it roared toward Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after hammering the eastern Caribbean, where it was blamed for at least three deaths.
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| Hurricane Dean 3-day forecast track. NOAA/NHC graphic |
Millions of people were under storm alerts in some of the most populous areas of the Caribbean, including parts of vulnerable Haiti and its teeming capital, Port-au-Prince, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and all of mountainous Jamaica, which was in the direct path of the powerful hurricane.
With sustained winds of 150 mph and gusts over 185 mph, Dean was a Category 4 storm, the second highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
It was expected to become a Category 5 storm within two days, with sustained winds of more than 155 mph.
Jamaica's political parties suspended campaigning for August 27 national elections as residents prepared for Dean. Lines formed at gas stations and people crowded markets, emptying shelves of batteries, canned tuna, rice and bottled water.
"The country is on high alert," said Kerry-Ann Morris, a spokeswoman for Jamaica's disaster preparedness office. "Hurricane Ivan three years ago is a very strong memory for a lot of Jamaicans and it was a very scary moment."
Dean's destructive core was expected to stay off Haiti's south coast. But tropical cyclones frequently trigger deadly flash floods and mudslides in the deforested, poverty-stricken country of 8 million people. A brush with Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004 killed nearly 3,000.
At 11 am EDT on Saturday, the center of Dean was located 565 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and was moving to the west-northwest at 17 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Dean trampled Martinique, St Lucia and Dominica on Friday as a Category 2 storm, pounding the islands with 100 mph winds and torrential rains that triggered landslides, lifted roofs off houses and knocked out power.
The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency reported three people were killed in Dominica and St Lucia.
In France's Caribbean territories, Dean destroyed all of Martinique's banana crop and 80 percent of the plantations in nearby Guadeloupe, said the head of the banana producers union, who estimated damage at up to $161 million.
French officials said 70 percent of Martinique's sugar cane plantations were destroyed.
Category 5 hurricanes are as rare as they are powerful. Until the record-busting 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, records showed only two years -- 1960 and 1961 -- with more than one Category 5 storm.
But in 2005, four hurricanes reached that strength -- Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Wilma became the most powerful hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic.
Across the region, fishing boats were ordered into port, tourists scrambled to get out and residents got ready.
"We can't get visas for the U.S. because we are from India. So we are going to stay in our townhouse for the storm," said Uma Kumar in the Cayman Islands. "It got a foot a water in it from Hurricane Ivan so if it floods we will move upstairs." | | | | Reads : 233 | | | |
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