• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Fierce Hurricane Emily blasts along Jamaica coast

Posted on: Saturday, 16 July 2005, 14:21 CDT

By Horace Helps

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - Hurricane Emily roared past Jamaica's southern coast on Saturday, hammering the Caribbean island with torrential rains and pounding surf as Mexico began evacuations in anticipation of the storm's 155 mph winds.

Emily's power was on the verge of making it a rare Category 5 storm on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity, one capable of destroying buildings.

Although Emily's raging core and worst winds stayed in the Caribbean Sea more than 100 miles off Jamaica's southern coast, the storm was large enough and strong enough to trigger flooding and mudslides on the island, home to about 2.6 million people.

At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), the center of Emily was about 135 miles southwest of Kingston and was moving to the west-northwest at about 18 mph (29 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Forecasters said Emily would skirt the Cayman Islands, a tiny British colony, before pushing across the Caribbean and striking Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Sunday.

In Jamaica, thousands of people had moved from their homes in flood-prone areas to schools and churches on Friday as hundreds of soldiers and police took to the streets to deter looters.

Floods and mudslides hit the southern parishes of St. Elizabeth and Clarendon but disaster officials said no fatalities had been reported by early afternoon.

The island's main airports in Kingston and Montego Bay were closed. Some hospitals sent patients with minor ailments home early to make room for storm victims.

STUBBORN IN PORT ROYAL

Some stubborn residents refused to leave the old pirate town of Port Royal, located on a vulnerable, narrow spit of land on the harbor south of Kingston. Much of the town, a bawdy haven for the buccaneers of the Spanish Main four centuries ago, was cast into the sea by an earthquake in 1692.

"They say that a hurricane is coming but I hear that all the time and little or nothing happens," said Port Royal resident Cecil Barham, 42.

The Mexican government issued a hurricane watch for the palm-fringed Yucatan coast around Cancun, one of the world's most popular vacation destinations, and hotels recommended guests cut short their vacations and return home.

Along the coast, fishing communities were evacuated, shop windows were boarded up and locals stocked up on food and gasoline. Around Cancun, schools and sports centers were turned into emergency shelters for up to 40,000 people.

Thousands of troops were drafted to help with evacuation or rescue drills.

The threat from Emily had come to Jamaica as the island was still tallying the damage from Hurricane Dennis, which killed one person when it swept along the northern shore on July 7. Dennis also killed 70 people in Haiti, Cuba and the United States.

Emily had weakened dramatically Friday as its maximum sustained winds dropped to 105 mph (175 kph) but it fed on the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea and grew rapidly.

Forecasters predicted Emily could drop 5 to 8 inches (13-20 cm) of rain on Jamaica and 15 inches (38 cm) in the mountains, raising the prospect of deadly flash floods and mudslides.

The National Hurricane Committee in the Cayman Islands warned the colony's 45,000 residents to be ready for as much as 8 inches (20 cm) of rain and waves up to 12 feet high along the south coast of Grand Cayman.

Emily slammed Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday and Thursday.

Few hurricanes reach Category 5 status, with winds over 155 mph (250 kph).

Hurricane Andrew, which hit southern Florida in 1992 and became the most expensive storm in U.S. history with more than $25 billion in damage, was a Category 5 with winds of 170 mph (275 kph). So too was Hurricane Mitch, which had 180 mph(290 kph) winds at its peak. It killed more than 9,000 people in Central America in 1998. (Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer in Mexico City)

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category