GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - Frantic vacationers lined up at ticket counters and slept on the airport floor, rushing to leave the Cayman Islands ahead of an expected brush Monday from Hurricane Dean, which has left a deadly trail of destruction across the Caribbean.
With winds nearing 150 mph, Dean was expected to pass to the south of the Caymans but the government said it still posed a "significant threat" to the islands and imposed a curfew on the British territory. Forecasters said the islands could receive up to 12 inches of rain.
Cayman Islands Gov. Stuart Jack said all but 1,500 tourists had been evacuated from the British territory by Sunday afternoon.
"It's kind of spooky," said George Mitchell, of Detroit, who missed his flight out. "We don't know what to do or where to go. It freaks you out."
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the first hurricane of the Atlantic season was a powerful Category 4 storm, and could reach the highest level — Category 5, with maximum winds greater than 155 mph — later Monday.
As of 8 a.m. EDT Monday, Dean was about 440 miles east of Belize City, traveling west at about 21 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
In Texas, already saturated after an unusually rainy summer, emergency operations centers opened, prison inmates were moved inland, and officials distributed sandbags — taking no chances even though Dean's path was still uncertain.
"Our mission is very simple. It's to get people out of the kill zone, to get people out of the danger area, which is the coastline of Texas," said Johnny Cavazos, chief emergency director of Cameron County, at Texas' southern tip.
In Mexico, travelers also slept on floors at Cancun's international airport, hoping for one of the last flights out Monday before Dean was expected to slam into Mexico's Caribbean coast.
Nicolas Martignoles, 27, a teacher from Paris, stretched out on the airport floor with friends, prepared to wait all night. "We came to the airport because we are on standby, but all the flights are full, so we are waiting for another flight tomorrow."
Dean killed at least eight people as it moved across the Caribbean, but Jamaica avoided a direct hit when the storm wound up passing to the south Sunday night.
Still, Dean uprooted trees, flooded streets and tore the roofs off many homes, businesses and a prison block in Jamaica. No prisoners escaped.
Police got into a shootout with looters at a shopping center in the central parish of Clarendon, but nobody was hurt, Constable Cheree Greaves said. Assistant Commissioner of Police Linval Bailey said curfews were in effect until Monday evening. Authorities also cut power on the island to prevent damage to the power grid.
The government set up more than 1,000 shelters in converted schools, churches and the indoor national sports arena, but only 47 shelters were occupied as the storm moved in, said Cecil Bailey of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management. More people trickled in later.
George Lee, mayor of the Portmore community near the Jamaican capital Kingston, said appeals to evacuate went unheeded. Some islanders said they were afraid for their belongings if they moved to shelters.
"Too much crime in Kingston. I'm not leaving my home," Paul Lyn said in Port Royal, east of Kingston.
Many tourists who did not get flights out took shelter at places such as Sandals Whitehouse, a resort that has buildings capable of withstanding a powerful storm.
Trinice Tyler, a postal worker from Lake Elsinore, Calif., said she would weather the storm there "on my knees praying."
"I'm celebrating my 40th birthday today, and it's going to be a birthday to remember," she said. "I have mixed emotions. It's exciting, but I'm nervous. Am I going to make it home?"
The hurricane created massive waves and surges up to 20 feet high as it passed the Dominican Republic on Saturday, flooding roads and drowning a boy. At least two people were killed and about 150 homes were destroyed in Haiti, emergency officials said.(AP)
Showing posts with label Hurricane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hurricane. Show all posts
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Hurricane Dean Poised To Hit Jamaica: AP
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaicans headed inland and tourists fled the country hours before a large and powerful Hurricane Dean appeared poised to make a direct hit on the island Sunday after a deadly and destructive march across the eastern Caribbean.
Jamaica converted schools, churches and the indoor national sports arena into shelters and authorities urged people to take cover from a storm that could rake the country with winds of 150 mph and dump up to 20 inches of rain.
"It's going to be very, very serious," said Lawrence Samuel as he shopped for emergency groceries while his wife and son went to the hardware store for plywood and other supplies.
The storm, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, rolled through the Caribbean to the south of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where heavy rain and surging seas caused flooding Saturday in coastal areas.
In Gonave, an island with no electricity west of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, thousands of people huddled in shelters as the storm brought heavy rain and fierce winds, said Samuel Menager, an employee of the international aid group World Vision who helped evacuate people from the coast.
Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said late Saturday the country was confronting a national emergency and urged people in flood-prone areas to head for shelter.
"Do not wait for the last minute to make the decision to move from where you are," Simpson Miller said. "Decide now and begin to make arrangements to leave now."
Thousands of alarmed tourists were not waiting. They jammed Caribbean airports for flights out of Hurricane Dean's path as the fierce storm that has claimed at least six lives began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The storm's wrath could be felt Saturday in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, where a boy was pulled into the ocean and drowned while watching waves strike an oceanfront boulevard, the Dominican emergency operations center reported.
Rough surf churned by Dean destroyed five houses and damaged 15 others along the Dominican coast, emergency officials said.
In Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which was also in the path of the Category 4 storm, fear gripped many islanders and tourists alike.
People jammed supermarkets and hardware stores in Kingston to stock up on canned food, bottled water, flashlights, batteries, lamps and plywood. In malls in the Jamaican capital, storeowners hammered plywood over windows.
Elaine Russell recalled Hurricane Ivan's destruction in 2004.
"I can't take it," she said. "The storm is bad enough but it's what happens afterwards — there's no light, no water."
Farther west, the low-lying Cayman Islands were expected to take a direct hit on Monday. Tourists there jammed Owens International Airport in snaking lines that stretched outside onto a lawn. A police officer with a bullhorn kept order.
Cayman Airways added 15 flights to Florida from the wealthy British territory, and they were quickly sold out.
The government ordered a mandatory evacuation by noon Sunday of Little Cayman, which is the smallest of the territory's three islands and has a population of about 150.
Authorities in the eastern Caribbean were assessing the damage after Dean hit on Friday as a Category 2 storm with winds of near 100 mph.
In the island of Martinique, an overseas department of France, authorities on Saturday confirmed two deaths, including a woman who apparently fell and drowned in her home.
Officials there estimated that up to $270 million is needed to repair infrastructure. Agriculture Minister Louis Daniel Berthome said all banana crops were destroyed.
Dean was on course to clip Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and enter the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said it was too soon to say whether it will strike the United States.
Playing it safe, NASA shortened the last spacewalk for astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour and ordered the spacecraft to return to Earth on Tuesday — a day early — fearing the storm might threaten the Houston home of Mission Control.
At 5 a.m. EDT, Dean was centered about 245 east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 155 miles south-southwest of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. The storm was moving west-northwest at 18 mph and had maximum sustained winds near 145 mph.
The Cuban government issued a tropical storm warning and said it was evacuating 50,000 people from three central and eastern provinces.(AP)
Jamaica converted schools, churches and the indoor national sports arena into shelters and authorities urged people to take cover from a storm that could rake the country with winds of 150 mph and dump up to 20 inches of rain.
"It's going to be very, very serious," said Lawrence Samuel as he shopped for emergency groceries while his wife and son went to the hardware store for plywood and other supplies.
The storm, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, rolled through the Caribbean to the south of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where heavy rain and surging seas caused flooding Saturday in coastal areas.
In Gonave, an island with no electricity west of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, thousands of people huddled in shelters as the storm brought heavy rain and fierce winds, said Samuel Menager, an employee of the international aid group World Vision who helped evacuate people from the coast.
Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said late Saturday the country was confronting a national emergency and urged people in flood-prone areas to head for shelter.
"Do not wait for the last minute to make the decision to move from where you are," Simpson Miller said. "Decide now and begin to make arrangements to leave now."
Thousands of alarmed tourists were not waiting. They jammed Caribbean airports for flights out of Hurricane Dean's path as the fierce storm that has claimed at least six lives began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The storm's wrath could be felt Saturday in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, where a boy was pulled into the ocean and drowned while watching waves strike an oceanfront boulevard, the Dominican emergency operations center reported.
Rough surf churned by Dean destroyed five houses and damaged 15 others along the Dominican coast, emergency officials said.
In Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which was also in the path of the Category 4 storm, fear gripped many islanders and tourists alike.
People jammed supermarkets and hardware stores in Kingston to stock up on canned food, bottled water, flashlights, batteries, lamps and plywood. In malls in the Jamaican capital, storeowners hammered plywood over windows.
Elaine Russell recalled Hurricane Ivan's destruction in 2004.
"I can't take it," she said. "The storm is bad enough but it's what happens afterwards — there's no light, no water."
Farther west, the low-lying Cayman Islands were expected to take a direct hit on Monday. Tourists there jammed Owens International Airport in snaking lines that stretched outside onto a lawn. A police officer with a bullhorn kept order.
Cayman Airways added 15 flights to Florida from the wealthy British territory, and they were quickly sold out.
The government ordered a mandatory evacuation by noon Sunday of Little Cayman, which is the smallest of the territory's three islands and has a population of about 150.
Authorities in the eastern Caribbean were assessing the damage after Dean hit on Friday as a Category 2 storm with winds of near 100 mph.
In the island of Martinique, an overseas department of France, authorities on Saturday confirmed two deaths, including a woman who apparently fell and drowned in her home.
Officials there estimated that up to $270 million is needed to repair infrastructure. Agriculture Minister Louis Daniel Berthome said all banana crops were destroyed.
Dean was on course to clip Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and enter the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said it was too soon to say whether it will strike the United States.
Playing it safe, NASA shortened the last spacewalk for astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour and ordered the spacecraft to return to Earth on Tuesday — a day early — fearing the storm might threaten the Houston home of Mission Control.
At 5 a.m. EDT, Dean was centered about 245 east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 155 miles south-southwest of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. The storm was moving west-northwest at 18 mph and had maximum sustained winds near 145 mph.
The Cuban government issued a tropical storm warning and said it was evacuating 50,000 people from three central and eastern provinces.(AP)
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