KINGSTON, Jamaica (11 Sep 2004) -- Deadly Hurricane Ivan ripped Jamaica with powerful winds, torrential rains and huge waves on Saturday, tearing away houses and washing out roads before heading toward the Cayman Islands and Cuba. Ivan, which has killed at least 34 people -- mostly on the devastated Caribbean island of Grenada -- was upgraded to a rare, top-intensity Category 5 hurricane with winds of 165 mph as it blasted past Jamaica on Saturday afternoon. The hurricane gave Jamaica's 2.7 million people a small, last-minute reprieve when its center suddenly wobbled westward, keeping the most catastrophic winds off the south coast and out of the capital, Kingston, where tens of thousands of people live in flimsy shanties in the slums. But the verdant, mountainous island still got hammered. "They did get hurricane-force winds and there are reports of serious damage," U.S. National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) meteorologist Jennifer Pralgo said. Police said they were stretched trying to control looting that broke out as the storm hit Jamaica. One man was shot to death by police in a gunfight that erupted when the officers came upon a group of men looting a Kingston supermarket, police said. Robbers held up emergency workers at gunpoint, shooting and injuring one doctor as she slowed her car in rising water. Ivan ripped off roofs across the island and torrential rains triggered mudslides, washing out roads. The storm brought trees and poles crashing down in Kingston, where ravines overflowed and flooded streets. Jamaica's death toll rose to eight, and included people whose houses collapsed when trees fell on them and others who drowned when their home was submerged by floodwaters. The Category 5 storm, capable of catastrophic damage, remained on course to hit the Cayman Islands, a wealthy British colony northwest of Jamaica, and Cuba. It also threatens Florida with its third big hurricane strike in a month, after Charley and Frances. Evacuations were under way in the Florida Keys, where officials ordered tourists and the 80,000 residents out of the 100-mile-long island chain. In the Cayman Islands, home to about 45,000 people and a key offshore financial center, authorities told coastal dwellers to flee battering waves and an 8-foot (2.4-meter) storm surge as Ivan's wobbly track put Grand Cayman, the largest of the territory's three islands, in greater danger. "We want to avoid people being trapped, as once the seas come in, emergency services won't be able to help them," said James Ryan, chairman of the Caymans hurricane committee. | | A man walks near a house that was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan, in Kingston, Jamaica, September 11, 2004. Ivan ripped Jamaica with powerful winds, torrential rains and huge waves on Saturday, tearing away houses and washing out roads before heading toward the tiny Cayman Islands and Cuba. (Reuters/Daniel Aguilar) At 2 p.m., Ivan's center was about 40 miles west-southwest of Jamaica's western tip at latitude 18 north and longitude 79 west, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It was drifting west but forecasters expected it to shift west-northwest at about 8 mph. Ivan was forecast to be in Cuba by Monday, and off Florida's west coast, threatening areas struck last month by Hurricane Charley, by Tuesday. CUBA BEGINS EVACUATIONS Cuba began evacuating hundreds of thousands of people in the western half of the island. In the capital, Havana, a city of 2 million directly in Ivan's forecast path, nervous residents jammed shops to buy food and water, candles and other supplies. Gasoline and diesel were rationed. "I've got a bottle of rum. When the wind starts blowing I'll take two shots and may God's will be done. What else can one do?" said housewife Esther Martinez. The Red Cross estimated 60,000 of Grenada's 90,000 people were homeless. The island has been without power or water and under a nighttime curfew since Ivan struck on Tuesday. The State Department sent charter flights on Saturday to evacuate 1,400 stranded Americans, many of them medical students at St. George's University. In addition to 17 confirmed deaths in Grenada and eight in Jamaica, four people died in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic and one in Tobago. Gov. Jeb Bush declared yet another state of emergency in Florida as Ivan approached and residents evacuated the Keys. Officials expressed concern about stubborn Keys residents who refuse to leave the vulnerable, low-lying islands. "On some occasions that will work. On other occasions they won't be around the next time to talk about it," National Hurricane Center deputy director Ed Rappaport said. Florida is still cleaning up from hurricanes Charley, which killed more than 20 people and caused insured damage of $7.4 billion, and Frances, which killed 23 and caused damages of $2 billion to $4 billion. SOURCE - Reuters |
