Associated Press
BARAHONA, Dominican Republic – Tropical storm Iris strengthened into a hurricane Saturday, lashing impoverished Haiti with winds and heavy rain and threatening a direct hit on Jamaica, after it triggered a mudslide and floods in the Dominican Republic.
Iris is the first hurricane this season to threaten Caribbean islands.
Two men were lightly injured when a mudslide destroyed their home in Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, said Jose Luis Guzman of the Dominican Civil Defense Force.
Thirty-five families were evacuated from low-lying neighborhoods as rivers swelled over their banks, he said. The storm dumped at least 3 inches of rain along the Dominican south coast.
Saturday evening, Iris – packing maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, putting it at hurricane strength – was moving west some 60 miles south of Hispaniola. The eye had already passed the Dominican Republic and was 75 miles south of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Hurricane-force winds extended 25 miles from the storm center and tropical storm force winds another 115 miles.
Haiti posted a hurricane warning for its south coast and advised coastal residents and valley dwellers to move to higher ground.
In Haiti’s coastal town of Jacmel – an artist’s colony 55 miles east of the Dominican border – residents braced themselves. Forecasters said the storm’s worst winds and rain were centered in its northeast quadrant nearest the coast.
“Everybody’s prepared. We’re crossing our fingers,” said Zidor Montal, a technician at Radio Express-Jacmel. The radio station broadcast storm warnings throughout Saturday and encouraged people to stock up on supplies as the skies darkened.
Jamaica was under a hurricane warning. The hurricane is projected to strengthen to 85 mph, then make land at Kingston, the capital, by midday Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The storm is expected to cut a path through the center of the island and exit through its northwest tip, a region packed with resort hotels, by this evening, said Hurricane Center forecaster Krissy Williams.
If that happens, it could devastate a tourist industry that was hurting even before the terrorist attacks on the United States caused thousands to cancel visits.
The Dominican Republic maintained a hurricane warning for southwest coastal areas near the Haitian border. Cuba’s eastern provinces of Guantanamo and Granma were under hurricane warning, with a hurricane watch for the provinces of Las Tunas and Camaguey. Cayman Islands, with Iris projected to brush past Grand Cayman in 36 hours, issued a hurricane watch.
Meanwhile, tropical depression No. 12 neared tropical storm strength in the Atlantic, prompting Barbados to issue a storm watch. By Saturday afternoon, the system had sustained winds near 35 mph and was 500 miles east of Barbados.
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