Mexico, Texas prepare for storm’s direct hit
KINGSTON. Hurricane Dean plowed into Jamaica as a Category-4 storm yesterday, after the prime minister made a last-minute plea for residents to abandon their homes and head for shelter. Many residents ignored the call, however, while tourists holed up in resorts with hurricane-proof walls.
The storm, which had already killed eight people on its destructive march across the Caribbean, triggered evacuation calls from the Cayman Islands to Texas, and forced the Space Shuttle to cut short its mission. Cruise ships changed course to avoid Dean, but some tourists in Jamaica couldn’t get away before the island closed its airports late Saturday.
Hurricane-force winds began lashing Jamaica yesterday afternoon, according to meteorologist Rebecca Waddington at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said Jamaica that would take a near-direct hit, with Dean’s eye passing just to the south.
The government set up more than 1,000 shelters in converted schools, churches and the indoor national sports arena, and authorities urged people to take cover from Dean, which had sustained winds of 145 mph and was expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain on the island.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the first hurricane of the Atlantic season was projected to reach the most dangerous hurricane classification, Category 5, with winds of 160 mph before crashing into the Mexican coastline near Cancun tonight or tomorrow. The Mexican mainland or Texas could be hit later. Officials in both Mexico and Texas had begun some evacuations.
The storm already has caused at least eight deaths in the Caribbean.
Dean rolled through the sea south of Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic — where heavy rain and surging seas caused flooding Saturday in coastal areas.
At least one person was killed in northwestern Moron and another on Haiti’s southern peninsula, where about 150 homes were destroyed, emergency officials said.
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