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Hurricane Emily strengthens, closes in on Jamaica

Posted on: Friday, 15 July 2005, 23:17 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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