By STEVENSON JACOBS
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Hurricane Ivan lashed Jamaica with monstrous waves, driving rain and winds nearing 155 mph Saturday, killing at least two people as it washed away homes and tore roofs off houses and trees from the ground but unexpectedly spared the island from a direct hit.
In the Jamaican capital, Kingston, sporadic looting and gunfire erupted overnight and continued Saturday morning. Associated Press reporters said looters carrying boxes of groceries from a smashed storefront.
A 10-year-old girl drowned in Old Harbor, just east of Kingston, and a woman was killed in the capital by a tree that struck here home, said Ronald Jackson of Jamaica's disaster relief agency.
The two deaths raised the toll from Ivan to 39, most in Grenada, which was devastated when Ivan swept through earlier. The toll was expected to rise since the extent of damage was still unclear, with flooding and debris blocking roads and telephone service patchy.
Jamaica, an island of 2.6 million known for its tourism, reggae and Blue Mountain coffee, was saved the full brunt of Ivan's fury by an unexpected wobble and lurch to the west overnight.
The change in course could be good news for hurricane-weary Florida, since Ivan may now head into the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters warned it could still move back to its predicted course and hit the state.
"I'd say we have been spared the worst but we're not out of the woods yet," Jackson said as sheets of rain continued to lash the capital and winds bent palm trees to a 45-degree angle at 8 a.m.
By 11 a.m. EDT, Ivan was centered about 30 miles southwest of the western tip of Jamaica. After drifting westward it was expected to move west-northwest or northwest at about 8 mph and was forecast to come near the Cayman Islands in about 24 hours.
Kingston residents started emerging from homes to survey the damage _ houses with zinc roofs peeled back and waterlogged furniture, trees snapped in two at their bases, streets littered with debris. The road to the airport was a muddy river strewn with refrigerators, downed trees, traffic lights.
Downtown, 20-foot-tall trees were uprooted, some flung onto the roofs of cars. Porcelain tiles that decorated the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel were torn from the facade and smashed to shards.
Amid some looting, a dozen heavily armed police officers kneeled behind a car with assault rifles at the ready, saying they were in the middle of a shootout, it was not clear with whom. Troops carrying assault rifles patrolled the darkened city, its electricity cut to protect power plants.
Officials were trying to clear the road to reach the cut-off eastern parish of St. Thomas, believed to be the hardest hit, Jackson said.
The storm's winds were just below the 155-mph mark that would make it a Category 5, the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale. But the heaviest winds did not make landfall in Jamaica.
Ivan's eye "wobbled toward the west for the past few hours" early Saturday, bringing it within 35 miles of Kingston but keeping it off the island, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the center, said Ivan still could return to a projected path that would take it over the smaller of the Cayman islands, across western Cuba and into the heart of southern Florida. As of now, it was still expected to hit Cuba.
"We're going to have to wait and see," she said. "It may come back to course."
In South Florida, long lines reappeared at gas stations and shoppers swarmed home building stores and supermarkets as residents braced for a third hurricane following Charley and Frances. Forecasters said Ivan could tear through the Keys as early as Monday.
The Cayman government posted a hurricane warning and urged residents of all three of its islands to prepare for a possible direct hit. Cuba upgraded to a hurricane warning in its eastern areas, with a hurricane watch through the rest of the country.
The Jamaican government had pleaded with a half million people considered in danger to get to shelters, but in the end only about 5,000 people did so, with most fearing their homes would be robbed if abandoned.
"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, 49, pointing to a stove, television, cooking utensils and large bed crowded into a one-room concrete home on the beach at the northwestern resort of Montego Bay.
In Montego Bay, the Barnett River overflowed its banks, putting some businesses four feet under water and flooding inland roads and farmlands. Drenching rain washed away the main northern coastal road, the A1, just outside Montego Bay.
In Haiti, east of Jamaica, flooding destroyed at least two houses and damaged a dozen more, but people expressed relief they were spared further catastrophe in a year that has already brought a bloody rebellion and deadly floods.
"First we had a political hurricane, then an economic hurricane and now, with the natural hurricane, we're just glad God saved us," said Jude Vante, 32, an unemployed mason in low-lying Les Cayes, on the southern peninsula.
Ivan became the fourth major hurricane of the Atlantic Season on Sunday. It damaged dozens of homes in Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent Tuesday before making a direct hit on Grenada.
Grenada, an island of 100,000 people, suffered the worst damage and was left a wasteland of flattened houses, twisted metal and splintered wood. The storm damaged 90 percent of homes, tossed sailboats to shore and set off looting.
More than 100 Caribbean soldiers from five countries arrived Thursday to help restore order. Still, the American Red Cross disaster unit said Grenada's government has temporarily closed the country to relief shipments to ensure security. The unit's director, Doug Allen, said Grenada needs relief by Sunday to avoid a critical situation.
Up to 75 convicts remained at large after about 150 of the prison's 325 inmates escaped when the storm damaged the prison.
Ivan has killed 26 people in Grenada, five in Venezuela, one in Tobago, one in Barbados, and four youngsters in the Dominican Republic.
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Associated Press reporters Ian James, Harold Quash and Loren Brown in Grenada, Peter Prengaman in Jamaica, Jose Monegro in Dominican Republic, Amy Bracken in Haiti and Tony Fraser in Trinidad contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Hurricane Ivan lashed Jamaica with monstrous waves, driving rain and winds nearing 155 mph Saturday, killing at least two people as it washed away homes and tore roofs off houses and trees from the ground but unexpectedly spared the island from a direct hit.
In the Jamaican capital, Kingston, sporadic looting and gunfire erupted overnight and continued Saturday morning. Associated Press reporters said looters carrying boxes of groceries from a smashed storefront.
A 10-year-old girl drowned in Old Harbor, just east of Kingston, and a woman was killed in the capital by a tree that struck here home, said Ronald Jackson of Jamaica's disaster relief agency.
The two deaths raised the toll from Ivan to 39, most in Grenada, which was devastated when Ivan swept through earlier. The toll was expected to rise since the extent of damage was still unclear, with flooding and debris blocking roads and telephone service patchy.
Jamaica, an island of 2.6 million known for its tourism, reggae and Blue Mountain coffee, was saved the full brunt of Ivan's fury by an unexpected wobble and lurch to the west overnight.
The change in course could be good news for hurricane-weary Florida, since Ivan may now head into the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters warned it could still move back to its predicted course and hit the state.
"I'd say we have been spared the worst but we're not out of the woods yet," Jackson said as sheets of rain continued to lash the capital and winds bent palm trees to a 45-degree angle at 8 a.m.
By 11 a.m. EDT, Ivan was centered about 30 miles southwest of the western tip of Jamaica. After drifting westward it was expected to move west-northwest or northwest at about 8 mph and was forecast to come near the Cayman Islands in about 24 hours.
Kingston residents started emerging from homes to survey the damage _ houses with zinc roofs peeled back and waterlogged furniture, trees snapped in two at their bases, streets littered with debris. The road to the airport was a muddy river strewn with refrigerators, downed trees, traffic lights.
Downtown, 20-foot-tall trees were uprooted, some flung onto the roofs of cars. Porcelain tiles that decorated the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel were torn from the facade and smashed to shards.
Amid some looting, a dozen heavily armed police officers kneeled behind a car with assault rifles at the ready, saying they were in the middle of a shootout, it was not clear with whom. Troops carrying assault rifles patrolled the darkened city, its electricity cut to protect power plants.
Officials were trying to clear the road to reach the cut-off eastern parish of St. Thomas, believed to be the hardest hit, Jackson said.
The storm's winds were just below the 155-mph mark that would make it a Category 5, the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale. But the heaviest winds did not make landfall in Jamaica.
Ivan's eye "wobbled toward the west for the past few hours" early Saturday, bringing it within 35 miles of Kingston but keeping it off the island, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the center, said Ivan still could return to a projected path that would take it over the smaller of the Cayman islands, across western Cuba and into the heart of southern Florida. As of now, it was still expected to hit Cuba.
"We're going to have to wait and see," she said. "It may come back to course."
In South Florida, long lines reappeared at gas stations and shoppers swarmed home building stores and supermarkets as residents braced for a third hurricane following Charley and Frances. Forecasters said Ivan could tear through the Keys as early as Monday.
The Cayman government posted a hurricane warning and urged residents of all three of its islands to prepare for a possible direct hit. Cuba upgraded to a hurricane warning in its eastern areas, with a hurricane watch through the rest of the country.
The Jamaican government had pleaded with a half million people considered in danger to get to shelters, but in the end only about 5,000 people did so, with most fearing their homes would be robbed if abandoned.
"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, 49, pointing to a stove, television, cooking utensils and large bed crowded into a one-room concrete home on the beach at the northwestern resort of Montego Bay.
In Montego Bay, the Barnett River overflowed its banks, putting some businesses four feet under water and flooding inland roads and farmlands. Drenching rain washed away the main northern coastal road, the A1, just outside Montego Bay.
In Haiti, east of Jamaica, flooding destroyed at least two houses and damaged a dozen more, but people expressed relief they were spared further catastrophe in a year that has already brought a bloody rebellion and deadly floods.
"First we had a political hurricane, then an economic hurricane and now, with the natural hurricane, we're just glad God saved us," said Jude Vante, 32, an unemployed mason in low-lying Les Cayes, on the southern peninsula.
Ivan became the fourth major hurricane of the Atlantic Season on Sunday. It damaged dozens of homes in Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent Tuesday before making a direct hit on Grenada.
Grenada, an island of 100,000 people, suffered the worst damage and was left a wasteland of flattened houses, twisted metal and splintered wood. The storm damaged 90 percent of homes, tossed sailboats to shore and set off looting.
More than 100 Caribbean soldiers from five countries arrived Thursday to help restore order. Still, the American Red Cross disaster unit said Grenada's government has temporarily closed the country to relief shipments to ensure security. The unit's director, Doug Allen, said Grenada needs relief by Sunday to avoid a critical situation.
Up to 75 convicts remained at large after about 150 of the prison's 325 inmates escaped when the storm damaged the prison.
Ivan has killed 26 people in Grenada, five in Venezuela, one in Tobago, one in Barbados, and four youngsters in the Dominican Republic.
___
Associated Press reporters Ian James, Harold Quash and Loren Brown in Grenada, Peter Prengaman in Jamaica, Jose Monegro in Dominican Republic, Amy Bracken in Haiti and Tony Fraser in Trinidad contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.
I'm still worried!
but you get more icky snow than we do!