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Hurricane Ivan Pummels Jamaica; 39 Dead

Posted on: Saturday, 11 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Hurricane Ivan lashed Jamaica with monstrous waves, driving rain and winds nearing 155 mph Saturday, killing at least two people as it washed away homes and ripped up roofs and utility poles but unexpectedly spared the island from a direct hit.

A 10-year-old girl drowned in Old Harbor, just east of Kingston, and a woman was killed in the capital by a tree that struck here home, said Ronald Jackson of Jamaica's disaster relief agency.

The two deaths raised the toll from Ivan to 39, most in Grenada, which was devastated when Ivan swept through earlier. The toll was expected to rise since the extent of damage was still unclear, with flooding and debris blocking roads and telephone service patchy.

Jamaica, an island of 2.6 million known for its tourism, reggae and Blue Mountain coffee, was saved the full brunt of Ivan's fury by an unexpected wobble and lurch to the west overnight.

The change in course could be good news for hurricane-weary Florida, since Ivan may now head into the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters warned it could still move back to its predicted course and hit the state.

Sporadic gunfire and looting was reported in Jamaica's crime-ridden capital, Kingston, but police could not confirm that and the telephone service appeared to fail as Ivan passed. Troops carrying assault rifles patrolled the darkened city, its electricity cut to protect power plants.

"I'd say we have been spared the worst but we're not out of the woods yet," Jackson said as sheets of rain continued to lash the capital and winds bent palm trees to a 45-degree angle at 8 a.m..

Officials were trying to clear the road to reach the cut-off eastern parish of St. Thomas, believed to be the hardest hit, Jackson said.

In downtown Kingston, 20-foot-tall trees were uprooted, some flung onto the roofs of cars, and twisted metal roof panels strew the streets. Porcelain tiles that decorated the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel were torn from the facade and smashed to shards.

The storm's winds were just below the 155-mph mark that would make it a Category 5, the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale. But the heaviest winds did not make landfall in Jamaica.

Ivan's eye "wobbled toward the west for the past few hours" early Saturday, bringing it within 35 miles of Kingston but keeping it off the island, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"They did get very extreme winds and there's still going to be a lot of damage," said Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the center.

Pralgo said Ivan still could return to a projected path that would take it over the smaller of the Cayman islands, across western Cuba and into the heart of southern Florida. As of now, it was still expected to hit Cuba.

"We're going to have to wait and see," she said. "It may come back to course."

In South Florida, long lines reappeared at gas stations and shoppers swarmed home building stores and supermarkets as residents braced for a third hurricane following Charley and Frances. Forecasters said Ivan could tear through the Keys as early as Monday.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Ivan was centered just off the southwest coast of Jamaica and heading west-northwest near 8 mph, heading toward the Cayman Islands. Hurricane-force winds extended 45 miles and tropical storm-force winds another 175 miles.

The Cayman government posted a hurricane warning and urged residents of all three of its islands to prepare for a possible direct hit. Cuba declared a hurricane watch Friday.

Howling winds and sheets of horizontal rain crashed around Kingston in the south after Patterson declared a state of emergency and pleaded with the half million people considered in danger - about one in five islanders - to get to shelters. Most refused for fear abandoned homes would be robbed.

"I'm not saying I'm not afraid for my life but we've got to stay here and protect our things," said Lorna Brown, 49, pointing to a stove, television, cooking utensils and large bed crowded into a one-room concrete home on the beach at the northwestern resort of Montego Bay.

Earlier, awed onlookers stood transfixed on the seaside Palisadoes Highway near Kingston's airport as 23-foot waves crashed to shore, scattering rocks and dead tree branches more than 100 feet into the road.

"I've lived here all my life and I've never seen anything like this," said businessman Chester Pinnock, huddled under an umbrella against drenching rain.

"This is going to be disastrous. We could have hundreds dead. Hurricane Gilbert was a puppy compared to this," he said.

Gilbert, the last major storm to strike Jamaica, killed dozens of people and inflicted massive damages as a Category 3 storm in 1988.

But only 5,000 people moved into shelters, emergency management director Barbara Carby said.

In Montego Bay, the Barnett River overflowed its banks, putting some businesses four feet under water and flooding inland roads and farmlands. Drenching rain washed away the main northern coastal road, the A1, just outside Montego Bay.

In Haiti, east of Jamaica, flooding destroyed at least two houses and damaged a dozen more, but people expressed relief they were spared further catastrophe in a year that has already brought a bloody rebellion and deadly floods.

"First we had a political hurricane, then an economic hurricane and now, with the natural hurricane, we're just glad God saved us," said Jude Vante, 32, an unemployed mason in low-lying Les Cayes, on the southern peninsula.

Ivan became the fourth major hurricane of the Atlantic Season on Sunday. It damaged dozens of homes in Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent Tuesday before making a direct hit on Grenada.

Grenada, an island of 100,000 people, suffered the worst damage and was left a wasteland of flattened houses, twisted metal and splintered wood. The storm damaged 90 percent of homes, tossed sailboats to shore and set off looting.

More than 100 Caribbean soldiers from five countries arrived Thursday to help restore order. Still, the American Red Cross disaster unit said Grenada's government has temporarily closed the country to relief shipments to ensure security. The unit's director, Doug Allen, said Grenada needs relief by Sunday to avoid a critical situation.

Up to 75 convicts remained at large after about 150 of the prison's 325 inmates escaped when the storm damaged the prison.

Ivan has killed 26 people in Grenada, five in Venezuela, one in Tobago, one in Barbados, and four youngsters in the Dominican Republic.

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Associated Press reporters Ian James, Harold Quash and Loren Brown in Grenada, Peter Prengaman in Jamaica, Jose Monegro in Dominican Republic, Amy Bracken in Haiti and Tony Fraser in Trinidad contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical

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