Jamaicans Brace for Big Hurricane

Aug 20, 11:07 AM

Current Headlines: By Ross Sheil and Marc Lacey

Jamaica braced Sunday for a direct hit from Hurricane Dean, a powerful storm sweeping across the Caribbean that has already ripped off roofs and taken at least six lives on other islands. Residents huddled in their homes under a light rain, the beginning of what forecasters predicted could turn into gale-force winds, mudslides and heavy damage. The time for escape had passed as the authorities closed the airports Saturday night. The police ordered businesses closed in an attempt to avoid the looting that followed Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

"Everyone must take the threat very seriously and put in place all necessary safety measures," said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who took a break from political campaigning in recent days to convene the country's disaster preparedness team.

The first hurricane of the Atlantic season, Dean is a deadly Category 4 storm that experts say is on course to hit the Yucatan Peninsula by Tuesday. By then, as it moves through the deep water of the western Caribbean, forecasters say it may increase in intensity to a Category 5, its winds rising to at least 250 kilometers an hour, or 156 miles an hour.

"It is a potentially devastating hurricane," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the U.S. hurricane forecasting center in Miami.

The hurricane center predicted rainfall in Jamaica of 12.5 to 50 centimeters, or 5 to 20 inches, and slightly lesser amounts over the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. "These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the center said.

The Jamaican authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders in some vulnerable coastal communities, but not all Jamaicans were heading to the 1,000 shelters set up in schools, churches and sporting arenas across the island.

Tourists in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean crowded into airports on Saturday to fly out before the storm. Additional flights were scheduled, and Cayman Airways added 15 to Miami. Those quickly sold out, and not everybody could escape.

"If we'd got the chance we'd have gone," said Simone Fortune, 21, a Trinidadian who attends the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He said he would ride out the storm at the Hilton in Kingston.

Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 was the last tropical storm to roll over Jamaica, and it resulted in 45 deaths and severe damage. Before that, Hurricane Charlie in 1951 left the island in tatters.

"We are praying for the best but also preparing for the worst," said Brenda LaGrange Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, vowing assistance in case of a devastating blow.

The U.S. Agency for International Development put teams in place in Jamaica and other islands to assess damage and stationed $2 million in relief supplies in Miami to be distributed to the hardest hit areas.

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Marc Lacey reported from Mexico City.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

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