The Caribbean nation of Jamaica became the second major victim of Hurricane Ivan on Saturday as waves the height of two-storey houses and 250kph winds smashed into the island.
The storm, which has already brought destruction to Grenada — and is forecast next to strike the Cayman Islands, Cuba, then southern Florida — slammed into Jamaica early on Saturday. Ivan, the third west Atlantic hurricane this year, is of such severity that weather experts believe this may now be the worst season since 1964.
As first reports of fatalities in Jamaica began to filter out, the US National Hurricane Centre described Ivan as ‘an extremely dangerous storm’ and warned it could intensify again after crossing Jamaica, recovering the extremely rare Category 5 status, the most severe hurricane level, which it held when it hit Grenada.
Jamaica’s RJR Radio reported that a 10-year-old girl and a woman were killed. The two confirmed deaths raised the toll from Ivan to 39 dead, most in devastated Grenada. It was expected to rise still further. Even before the hurricane, moving at a ground speed of about 13kph, slowly tracked off Jamaica’s southern coastline, overflowing rivers had washed away homes, flooded low-lying areas and uprooted trees and telegraph poles.
As Friday night fell, it brought widespread power cuts and reports of looting and gunfire in some areas of the capital, Kingston. The main highway leading to the eastern part of the island was also cut by flooding.
While the eye of the hurricane itself just missed the nation of 2,7-million, meteorologists estimated that Jamaica would be affected by a central core of the strongest gusts, 96km across. According to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Ivan’s eye ‘wobbled toward the west’ bringing it within 56km of Kingston but keeping it off the island itself. Even before the hurricane hit Jamaica, Prime Minister PJ Patterson declared a ‘period of public emergency’ in a radio address to the nation, ordering almost a fifth of the population to quit their homes. ‘It is clear that the severity of this hurricane will have extremely serious effects,’ he said. ‘Flooding has already begun in some places.’
Many residents refused to leave home, fearful of a repeat of the looting that occurred after Hurricane Gilbert hit Jamaica in 1988. That hurricane — a lower Category 3 storm — left dozens dead.
‘I’m not saying I’m not afraid for my life but we’ve got to stay here and protect our things,’ said Lorna Brown, pointing to a stove, television, cooking utensils and large bed crowded into a one-room concrete home on the beach at Montego Bay.
Hundreds of British tourists were also trapped by the storm, having turned down the chance to leave the island. Frances Tuke, spokesperson for the Association of British Travel Agents, said there had been about 3 500 package tourists in Jamaica. About 2 600 were airlifted to safety in the Dominican Republic but about 850 chose to stay. She said a further 25 British holidaymakers were in Grand Cayman and plans were being made to evacuate them.
Among the few accounts to have emerged on Saturday from Jamaica was via Jennifer Rodney (48) from north London. She spoke to her mother Myrtle in Spanish Town, St Catherine, in the south-east of Jamaica. She said: ‘My mother said the rain was very heavy and the winds were making a terrible noise. Trees have been blown down and she can hear things going past as they are ripped up.’
‘The whole island is without electricity,’ said Joseph Robinson, aged 45, from the British Caribbean territory of Turks and Caicos, as he took shelter in the lobby of a Kingston hotel. ‘It’s going beyond manageable.’
But even as Ivan pounded a Jamaica largely cut off from the outside world, emergency preparations were under way in its next likely targets, as the US National Hurricane Centre advised that Ivan’s most likely route would bring it over the Keys and into the eastern Gulf of Mexico late on Sunday or early on Monday after crossing the Caymans and Cuba.
Residents of all three Cayman islands, which are home to about 45 000 people and a key offshore financial centre, were urged to prepare ‘as for direct impact’.
The authorities told coastal dwellers to flee battering waves and an 8ft storm surge. ‘All three islands must therefore be prepared for the worst-case scenario,’ said Donovan Ebanks, the deputy chairperson of the National Hurricane Committee.
Cuba declared a hurricane watch on Friday after its leader, Fidel Castro, told residents to brace themselves. ‘Whatever the hurricane does, we will all work together’ to rebuild, he said.
In Florida — still reeling from two hurricanes in the past month which caused upwards of $20-billion in damage, and where 650 000 residents still remain without power — a widespread evacuation was ordered of the Florida Keys.
Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm, and warned that the state faced ‘yet another catastrophic disaster’. Forecasters said Ivan could tear through the Keys as early as Monday. – Guardian Unlimited Â