Hurricane Dean aims for Jamaica

KINGSTON – Jamaicans headed inland and tourists fled the country as a large and powerful Hurricane Dean appeared poised to make a direct hit on the island 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 230 kph and dump up to 50 centimetres 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, Port-au-Prince, thousands of people huddled in the darkness in churches and schools and other inland shelters as the storm brought heavy rain and fierce winds, said Samuel Menager, an employee of the international aid group World Vision who helped evacuated 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.Jamaica’s airports were closed late Saturday, and at 6 pm, government officials ordered all businesses shuttered until Tuesday.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 centre 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.Nampa-AP”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, Port-au-Prince, thousands of people huddled in the darkness in churches and schools and other inland shelters as the storm brought heavy rain and fierce winds, said Samuel Menager, an employee of the international aid group World Vision who helped evacuated 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.Jamaica’s airports were closed late Saturday, and at 6 pm, government officials ordered all businesses shuttered until Tuesday.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 centre 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.Nampa-AP