Hurricane Dean was expected to strengthen into an extremely
powerful Category 5 storm as it passed Jamaica and neared Mexico's
Yucatan Peninsula, the US National Hurricane Center
confirmed.
Category 5 hurricanes are the strongest and potentially most
destructive tropical cyclones on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale
of hurricane intensity with top sustained winds in excess of 249
km/ph.
On Friday Hurricane Dean smashed into the Caribbean islands,
leveling banana plantations and setting off landslides.
The US National Hurricane Center said Dean was capable of
widespread destruction.
It was expected to strengthen further before plowing directly over
Jamaica toward the Gulf, home to a third of US domestic crude oil
and 15% of natural gas production.
Dean roared through the narrow channel between the Lesser Antilles
islands of St. Lucia and Martinique early Friday, crossing from the
Atlantic Ocean to the warm Caribbean Sea.
Its progress was being nervously watched by energy markets, which
have been skittish about hurricanes since powerful storms in 2004
and 2005, including Ivan, Katrina and Rita, disrupted oil and gas
production.
Transocean, Royal Dutch Shell, Murphy Oil and other companies
pulled dozens of workers from offshore rigs.
Dean, the first hurricane of what is expected to be an
above-average Atlantic season, lifted the roof off the pediatric
wing at Victoria Hospital in St. Lucia's capital, Castries, but
patients had already been moved, officials said.
Heraldine Rock, an ex-government minister in the former British
colony of 170,000 people, said the storm ripped roofs off houses
and damaged at least two banana plantations.
"In one village, telephone and power lines are down. They're strewn
all over the road, trees are uprooted and are blocking the roads,"
she said. "In another village, a landslide has been reported,
cutting off any access to the airport."
Deputy Prime Minister Leonard Montoute said at least two people
were injured when a tree fell on their home.
"I'm told that the coastal areas have taken a severe battering.
There's debris all over Castries in the capital and flood waters on
the roads," he said.
Heading for Gulf
On neighboring Martinique, an elderly man died of a heart attack
during the storm and six people were injured. The hurricane
destroyed all the banana plantations, which employ 10,000 of
Martinique's 400,000 residents, and wiped out 70% of the sugarcane
farms, said Christian Estrosi, France's secretary of state for
overseas territories.
"In economic terms the damage is large and even dramatic," said
Estrosi, who planned to travel to Martinique on Saturday to
announce emergency aid measures.
"We will not leave anybody on the side of the road," he
said.
Category 3 to 5 storms, referred to collectively as "major" storms,
are generally the most destructive and have included infamous
hurricanes like Katrina.
Dean's projected path would put it directly over Jamaica on Sunday
and near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula or straight into the Gulf of
Mexico through the Yucatan Channel by Tuesday.
If it crosses the Yucatan, it is projected to emerge in the
southern Gulf and could disrupt operations in the Cantarell Complex
of Mexican oil fields, which is one of the world's most productive
and supplies two-thirds of Mexico's crude oil output.
Computer models have fluctuated between an eventual landing as far
north as Louisiana, which bore the brunt of Rita and Katrina, and
Belize, at the southern end of the Yucatan, but began to shift
generally more to the south late on Friday.
Storm alerts were in effect across the Caribbean region, including
Guadeloupe, the Dominican Republic, the British and USVirgin
Islands, Puerto Rico, Anguilla, Grenada, Montserrat, Antigua and
Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica and Cuba.
Forecasters have predicted the six-month 2007 hurricane season
would be more active than average with up to 16 named storms. An
average year historically has 10 or 11 storms.