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Written by Staff Writer
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Aug 20, 2007 at 04:59 PM |
Mexicans in the easter Yucatan Peninsula are bracing themselves for a potential category five hurricane that is registering winds of 150mph (240km/h).
The storm has so far claimed six lives in the eastern Caribbean, though the Carman islands came off surprisingly unscathed on Monday.
In Jamaica, a country which many said was unprepared, it caused awful damage to housing but human injuries are though to be low.
“We’re leaving. You don’t play around with nature,” said Maclovio Manuel Kanul, who owns a beachfront fishing shack near Cancun in Mexico, according to AP.
“We still haven’t been able to recover from Wilma, and now this is coming,” he added.
The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said Dean, already "extremely dangerous", may reach Category Five strength in the coming hours, with sustained winds greater than 155mph (249km/h) and a storm surge 18ft (5.5m) above normal tide levels.
Daniel Brown, from the NHC, said the focus was now on other areas.
"It looks like the biggest threat is going to be for portions of northern Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula coast of Mexico," he said.
At 2 pm EDT (1800 GMT), Dean was located about 330 miles (530 km) east of Belize City, the largest city in Belize, which borders Mexico.
The hurricane is heading west and is expected to move slightly north-westwards across the Yucatan Peninsula, the NHC said.
In the most recent hurricane advisory (31 at the time of writing) the minimum central pressure was measured at a very low 918 Mb. At 5pm EDT the NHC recinded all warnings for the Carman Islands. |
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Last Updated ( Aug 20, 2007 at 05:58 PM )
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