Her wind speeds are 80 mph and she is moving North at 13 mph.
She is located 65 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica.
Her centre should hit Jamaica at 3:00 pm today and she will exit Jamaica for Cuba, via the parish of St. Mary very late tonight.
Heavier gusts of wind should be felt within two (2) hours (1:00 pm Jamaica time; 2:00 p.m. EST).
Director-General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Ronald Jackson, is warning persons heading towards shelters to come prepared with their own dry rations - biscuits etc...
...as they will not be fed hot food, within the first day of their arrival at these shelters.
Gillian
Sources Include
National Hurricane Center, Miami, Florida, October 24,2012
According to Weather.Com's Hurricane Central (this is a video link), as of 5:00 am today, Tropical Storm Sandy strengthened to 70 mph, just 4 mph below a Category 1 Hurricane.
In Jamaica, we've been experiencing sporadic outbursts of moderate rain from Sandy's outer bands, but very few wind gusts.
There:
1) Have been mandatory evacuations in low-lying areas that are flood-prone. (Persons on the Pedro Cays - three (3) small islands located 50 miles South of Jamaica, were ordered to evacuate from Monday, although some have refused to leave.
The Jamaican Coast Guard had no other choice than to abandon them, as the Coast Guard had to secure its vessels).
2) Are presently 108 persons in shelters from four (4) parishes on island: Clarendon, Portland, Kingston and St. Andrew.
Will keep you updated for as long as I can.
(I'd like to thank RawFootageJA for the use of their YouTube video above).
The Jamaica Meteorological (MET) Service has stated that, contrary to previously announced...Hurricane Sandy will hit Jamaica between 2-4 am tomorrow morning.
(So for clarification, Jamaica should begin to feel wind gusts from the outer bands of then Hurricane Sandy, at that time. Sandy is still a Tropical Storm).
Jamaica is under a hurricane warning.
As a result of an increase in Sandy's forward speed, the MET Office has projected that at around 12 pm tomorrow afternoon, the center of Hurricane Sandy will be over the South Eastern Coast of Jamaica.
Sandy's center was located at 14.3 degrees N, 76.7 degrees W at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon and is moving at 7 mph.
Her wind speed is currently 55 mph, which is expected to increase to 74 mph (119 km h) tomorrow, when she lands as a hurricane.
She is expected to give 6 inches of rain per day until Friday.
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