Building Dean hits Caribbean; Gulf Coast next?
CASTRIES, St. Lucia -- Hurricane Dean roared into the eastern Caribbean on Friday, tearing away roofs, flooding streets and causing at least three deaths on small islands as the powerful storm headed on a collision course with Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
The Atlantic season's first hurricane grew into a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 mph after crossing over the warm waters of the Caribbean and forecasters warned it could grow into a monster tempest with 150 mph winds before steering next week into the Gulf of Mexico, with its 4,000 oil and gas platforms.
Dean could threaten the United States by Wednesday, forecasters said, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office suggested people get ready.
On tiny St. Lucia, fierce winds tore corrugated metal roofs from dozens of houses and a hospital's pediatric ward, whose patients had been evacuated hours earlier. Police said a 62-year-old man drowned when he tried to retrieve a cow from a rain-swollen river.
The government on Dominica reported that a woman and her 7-year-old son died when a hillside soaked by Dean's rains gave way and crushed the house where they were sleeping.
French authorities on the nearby island of Martinique said a 90-year-old man had died of a heart attack during the storm but it was unclear whether it was a factor.
Dean was forecast to brush the southern coast of Haiti late today, then hit Jamaica on Sunday and strengthen to Category 4 status, with winds between 131 and 155 mph, before clipping Yucatan two days later. In Washington, the State Department said it would allow some U.S. diplomats in Jamaica to leave the island to avoid the storm.
Jamaican officials said Kingston's national arena will serve as one of several shelters, and they drafted a plan to move inmates at two maximum security prisons if needed. Evacuation plans, especially for the flood-prone eastern region, were finalized, said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.
About a dozen cruise ships were altering their itineraries to avoid the hurricane and its aftermath, according to cruisecritic.com, a Web site devoted to cruise travel information.
On Yucatan, Mexican authorities broadcast radio alerts, including in the Yucatec Maya language, warning people to "be prepared." Some people boarded up windows and stocked up on supplies, while officials prepared some 570 schools, gymnasiums and public buildings as shelters.
Forecasters said it was too early to tell whether the storm would eventually strike the U.S. coast somewhere, but officials were getting ready just in case.
"It's so far out, but it's not too early to start preparing," said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Texas's governor.
Energy futures rose Friday on the news that Dean could move into the Gulf of Mexico, which produces roughly 25 percent of the United States' oil and 15 percent of its natural gas. Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it would evacuate 275 nonessential personnel from the Gulf, adding to the 188 who left earlier this week before another tropical storm struck Texas.
In Mexico, government emergency officials on Yucatan made plans for dealing with the region's 60,000 domestic and foreign tourists. If Dean continued on its track toward the peninsula, which includes the resort of Cancun, State Tourism Secretary Gabriela Rodriguez said the government would advise the U.S., Canada and Europe to warn tourists to postpone visits.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Dean could develop into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane as it approached Yucatan on Tuesday. But the forecasters stressed that intensity predictions can be inaccurate so far in advance.