Very Dangerous Hurricane Dean close to CAT 5..
Written by Awkward Situations on Sunday, August 19, 2007HURRICANE DEAN NEARING CATEGORY 5
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (CNN) -- Hurricane Dean battered the southern coast of Jamaica with heavy rains and surf as its eye passed offshore late Sunday, apparently sparing the Caribbean island the worst of its 145 mph winds.
David Shields, the deputy director of the island's tourism board, described conditions in the capital, Kingston, as "absolutely scary."
Ronald Jackson, Jamaica's disaster preparedness director, said at least one house had collapsed, but there were no known serious injuries.
"We'll be sending assessment teams out as soon as we can," Jackson said. 
At 11 p.m. ET, Dean's eye was located 135 miles (215 km) west-southwest of Kingston, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, reported. Its top winds of 145 mph (232 km/h) made it a strong Category 4 storm, with hurricane-force winds extending 60 miles from its center.
Sustained winds of 80 mph buffeted Kingston, and amateur radio operators reported streets were flooding, the hurricane center said.
An unofficial observation from Lionel Town, about 30 miles east of the capital, put top winds at 100 mph. And an aviation weather station at Kingston International Airport clocked winds even higher, at 114 mph.
Tropical storm-force winds could be felt as far out as 205 miles from the storm, forecasters reported.
Dean was moving westward at nearly 20 mph as it skirted the island, forecasters said. As it moves into the western Caribbean Sea, the storm retains the potential to become a Category 5 hurricane -- the top of the scale, with winds in excess of 155 mph.
Jamaica Public Service Company -- the sole distributor of electricity in Jamaica -- announced it was turning off the island's electricity to preserve the integrity of the system. In addition, the National Water Commission said it had turned off some pumps, especially in places prone to flooding.
Forecasters predicted Dean would dump anywhere from 5 to 20 inches of rain on the island, with a storm surge of 7 to 9 feet (2 to 3 meters) expected to batter coastal areas.
The storm already has been blamed for at least seven deaths across the Caribbean islands, including two killed as the storm stalked Haiti.
The storm is headed for the Yucatan Peninsula and could regain it's Category 5 strength by then and possibly hitting the Texas and Mexican border head on as a Category 3 or higher which has prompted several evacuations and an early state of emergency for Texas by President Bush to further evacuation efforts in the region.
(Image by Accuweather.com, story copyright 2007 to CNN.com, except the portion by myself in red.)
| Posted in »
