Hurricane Emily strengthens, closes in on Jamaica

By Horace Helps

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) – Jamaica evacuated its old
pirate town, Port Royal, and other flood-prone coastal areas on
Friday as Hurricane Emily drew closer, the second hurricane to
threaten the Caribbean island in 10 days.

The government ordered thousands of people evacuated from
homes to schools and churches as a safety precaution, many of
them from Portmore, a city of 300,000 about 7 miles west of
Kingston, which routinely floods.

The small settlement of Port Royal, a bawdy hangout for the
legendary buccaneers of the Spanish Main four centuries ago,
was particularly vulnerable. The village, much of which was
cast into the sea by an earthquake in 1692, sits at the end of
a long spit of land on Kingston’s harbor south of the capital.

Jamaica was still tallying the damage from Hurricane
Dennis, which killed one person when it swept along the north
shore on July 7. The storm’s powerful core stayed offshore but
heavy rain and strong waves pounded the island.

Dennis killed 70 other people in Haiti, Cuba and the United
States.

“We have identified the communities that are most
vulnerable to flooding and will be placing special emphasis on
these,” Jamaican Environment Minister Dean Peart said.
“Transportation is in place to move citizens and we are
stocking up the shelters with bedding, food and other items.”

Authorities closed government offices early on Friday and
urged businesses to send employees home. Fishermen returned to
shore and secured their boats.

CAPABLE OF SEVERE DAMAGE

Throughout the day, the hurricane strengthened, weakened
and then regrouped.

At 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), Emily’s center was about 265
miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and was moving
west-northwest near 18 mph (30 kph) on a track that would take
the core of the storm just off Jamaica’s southern coast on
Saturday.

Its top winds were 135 mph (215 kph), making it a dangerous
Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of
hurricane intensity, and capable of causing severe damage, the
U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and southern areas of the
Dominican Republic and Haiti were under storm alerts.

Emily slammed beleaguered Grenada on Wednesday and
Thursday. The tiny spice island of 90,000 people was still
recovering from last September’s Hurricane Ivan, which damaged
90 percent of houses and buildings and caused about $2.2
billion in damage, double Grenada’s annual economic output.

One person was killed in a mudslide. The storm damaged the
roofs of Grenada’s general hospital and the hospital on
neighboring Carriacou.

Grenada’s Agency for Reconstruction and Development said
Emily caused extensive damage on Carriacou, the neighboring
island of Petit Martinique, and part of Grenada.

The hurricane center’s forecast had Emily crossing the
northern tip of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on Sunday before
reaching the Texas-Mexico border late on Tuesday.