Jamaica Braces For Hurricane Dean!

Jamaica is now on hurricane watch.

After ravaging St.  Lucia, Dominica, Martinique, St.Kitts and Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, Hurricane Dean should either hit Jamaica, or move very close to the island, within 34 hours (Sunday morning.)

Dean is currently a category 4 hurricane, packing winds of up to 215 km (133 miles) per hour and is moving westwards, in the Caribbean Sea, at a rate of 35 km (21 miles) per hour.

The latest figures put Dean at latitude 14.9 N and longitude 65.1W  or 1,290km (800 miles) East South East (ESE) of Jamaica.

It spans about 235 km (146 miles) wide. (This means that Jamaica will be affected by strong gale-force winds, even if Dean moves to the north or south of the island.)

Please click The Weather Channel link, here, to get an up-to-the-hour projected track for Hurricane Dean. (You have to refresh your browser for this to happen, though.)

All weather models forecast that Jamaica is directly in Dean's path.

All political campaigning has been halted until after the hurricane has passed.

But depending on the level of devastation that Dean leaves in its wake, we will not know whether or not the general elections for August 27, will be postponed, until next week.

Jamaicans are praying that we will be spared from the worst.  But we are also preparing to meet Dean.

Battening down will start in earnest tomorrow, and supermarkets were packed today with shoppers getting last-minute food items and necessities (e.g. matches, lanterns, flashlights) to prepare for the hurricane.

Sources Include:

1) Projected Path of Hurricane Dean,The Weather Channel

2) Television Jamaica (TVJ)'s 7:00 p.m. Nightly News, August 17, 2007

3) CVM TV News Watch 8:00 p.m., August 17,2007

Gillian