Hurricane DEAN- Atlantic season's first hurricane
Hurricane Dean intensified
Saturday as it muscled across the Caribbean and headed toward a
dangerous rendezvous Sunday with Jamaica. Forecasters fear Dean will be
a destructive Category 5 monster packing 155 mph winds by then.
Even worse could be
yet to come. By Monday, as Dean nears
Cancun and other tourist areas along
Mexico's eastern Yucatan coast, its
sustained winds could be 160 mph, with
gusts as high as 195 mph -- wreaking new
havoc on an area heavily damaged just
two years ago by Hurricane Wilma.
Saturday morning, as
Dean roiled the open waters south of
Puerto Rico, the storm's maximum
sustained winds neared 150 mph with
higher gusts, putting it at Category 4
intensity and making it the strongest
storm so far of the 2007 Atlantic
hurricane season.
Damages to
Trinidad and Tobago:
Damages to
St. Lucia:
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.
People on Martinique, St. Lucia and
Dominica mostly stayed indoors Friday while the hurricane swept the islands
with heavy rain and wind. People who ventured out said the islands seemed to
have escaped serious damage.
On
St. Lucia, the storm washed boulders from
the sea onto downtown streets and knocked
down trees. The power company shut off
electricity across the island to prevent
people from being electrocuted by wires
broken by falling trees and power poles.
Dominica, which lies north of Martinique,
had minor flooding, a few downed fences and
trees and battered banana crops, one of the
island's main exports.
St. Lucia
'open for business' after Hurricane Dean
Monday, 20
Aug 2007 12:47
The
Caribbean island of St Lucia is 'open for
business' following the passing of Hurricane
Dean which is set to reach the Cayman
Islands today and Mexico tonight.
Hurricane Dean passed St Lucia as a Category
2 storm, though has since grown to a
Category 4, and may even reach the maximum
force, Category 5, before it reaches Mexico.
Airports in the north and south of St Lucia
have reopened, roads hit by landslides have
been cleared and electricity has been
restored to the island.
Hotels also reported no significant damage
to their properties, though they have been
spending the weekend cleaning-up after the
storm.
"We're thankful that the island is back to
full operational capacity, due in part to
the spirit of the St. Lucian people and the
fact that the hurricane passed the island in
its early stages," said Maria Fowell, St
Lucia director of tourism.
The Foreign Office said there were no
reports of injuries to tourists from
Hurricane Dean in St Lucia, but some hotels
have reported minor damage to facilities.
"Some infrastructure has been affected, but
repairs are being carried out quickly," it
said.
DOMINICA BADLY AFFECTED
The agriculture sector in Dominica has been severely
affected by Hurricane Dean and Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says an
assessment is being undertaken to determine the extent of the damages.
"Our major concern is in regards to the agriculture sector, we suspect that
it will be extensively damaged. As you know the banana industry is very
important to Dominica, but an assessment will be done later to determine
what is the dollar value of the damages to that sector," Skerrit told the
Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
He said some roads had been blocked and his administration is still awaiting
reports from the south and eastern sections of the island.
"We are talking of the extreme south because the hurricane basically
affected the south quite a bit and also the north of the country too. We
know that some five to six communities to the south and the south- east of
Dominica have been affected, but we are still waiting on the confirmed
numbers of homes that have been damaged.
Damages to
Jamaica:
 KINGSTON, Jamaica
- Hurricane Dean pummeled Jamaica with
gusting winds and torrential rains Sunday
after the prime minister made a last-minute
plea for residents to abandon their homes
and head for shelter. Many residents ignored
the call, however, while tourists holed up
in resorts with hurricane-proof walls.
Coastal Texas and Mexico also began
evacuations, with many Texans hoping to
avoid the disastrous last-minute exodus
before Hurricane Rita in 2005.
Dean, which had
already killed eight people on its
destructive march across the Caribbean,
triggered evacuation calls from the Cayman
Islands to Texas, and forced the Space
Shuttle to cut short its mission. Cruise
ships changed course to avoid Dean, but some
tourists in Jamaica could not get away
before the island closed its airports late
Saturday.
Damages to
Mexico:
Dean makes
landfall on
Mexico's coast-
Weakens to a
Category 3 storm
 CHETUMAL,
Mexico (Reuters)
- Hurricane Dean
smashed into
Mexico’s
Caribbean coast
Tuesday, its
ferocious winds
battering beach
resorts where
tens of
thousands of
tourists and
residents
huddled in
shelters.
After killing 11
people on its
rampage through
the Caribbean,
Dean was a
Category 5
hurricane — the
strongest
possible — when
it tore into
Mexico, landing
around the
cruise ship port
of Costa Maya,
near the border
with Belize.
It then lost
some of its
power over land
and was
downgraded to a
Category 3
storm, but
forecasters
warned that
roaring winds
and rains were
still a major
threat.
Chetumal, a city
of 150,000
people close to
where Dean made
landfall, was
left without
power when the
hurricane’s
sustained winds
of 165 miles per
hour and gusts
of up to 200 mph
knocked over
dozens of power
poles and trees.
Dean's
remnants
drench
central
Mexico
The
remnants
of
Hurricane
Dean
dumped
heavy
rain
across
central
Mexico
on
Thursday,
drenching
mudslide-prone
mountains
as it
pushed
inland
after
slamming
into the
Gulf
Coast as
a
Category
2 storm
and
killing
four
people.
Once a monster Category 5 hurricane, Dean was downgraded to a tropical depression Wednesday evening as it rapidly lost strength after battering Mexico's eastern coast.But the storm continued to be dangerous as it diminished. Heavy rain could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in parts of southern and central Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. Up to 20 inches of rain could fall in some areas, it said.
That possibility was a big concern in Tuxpan -- about 45 miles north of where Dean made landfall -- where officials said that the Tuxpan River was flowing backward -- inland, rather than toward the ocean.
Authorities worried the influx of water, possibly coupled with rains over the mountains to the west, could lead to flooding.
Dean hit the Mexican shore for the second time near the key port city of Veracruz Wednesday, with top sustained winds of 100 mph (160 kph) -- making it a Category 2 storm at the time of landfall, according to the hurricane center.
It has been steadily weakening since. At 11 p.m. ET, Dean's winds had dropped to 35 mph, the center said in its last public advisory on the system. The storm was moving west at near 21 mph.
All tropical storm and hurricane warnings have been canceled.
|
Hurricane Season 2007
June 1st - Nov 30th
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