KINGSTON, Jamaica – Waves two-stories high and torrential rains flooded eastern Jamaica and punishing winds knocked down trees and power lines as Hurricane Ivan slammed coastal areas late Friday, heading for a direct hit on the island. The death toll elsewhere in the Caribbean rose to 37.
Ivan’s winds strengthened to near 155 mph – the most powerful Category 5 ranking – as the storm’s center moved toward landfall at around 2 a.m. (Midnight PDT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
But the hurricane was expected to spare the densely populated capital of 1 million people the brunt of its wrath.
Reports of sporadic gunfire and looting in Kingston reached the emergency management agency, said spokeswoman Nadine Newsome, but police could not confirm that.
Howling winds and sheets of horizontal rain crashed around the eastern end of the blacked-out island after utility officials turned off the power to minimize damage to plants.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson declared a public emergency Friday afternoon and pleaded with the half million people considered in danger – about one in five islanders – to get to shelters. But most residents refused to leave for fear abandoned homes would be robbed.
“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 South Florida, long lines reappeared at gas stations and shoppers swarmed home building stores and supermarkets.
Forecasters said Ivan could tear through the Florida Keys as early as Monday though there was still a chance the storm would instead move out into the Gulf of Mexico.
Associated Press
A bedroom is exposed Friday after Hurricane Ivan blew off the house’s roof in St. George’s, Grenada.
Associated Press
Hurricane Ivan bears down on Jamaica on Friday afternoon in an infrared satellite image from the National Hurricane Center.
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