September 12, 2004
Hurricane Ivan lashed the tiny Cayman Islands with ferocious winds and driving rain on Sunday after devastating Jamaica and Grenada in a deadly trek through the Caribbean.
As its center neared the Cayman Islands, a wealthy British territory of 45,000 people south of Cuba, Ivan's top sustained winds had decreased slightly, to 155 mph (250 kph), but it was still a very dangerous hurricane.
Ivan killed at least 16 people in Jamaica, its torrential rains triggering mud slides and washing out roads and its winds ripping off roofs on the island of 2.7 million people when it roared past on Friday night and Saturday.
Ivan's eye was expected to pass over or near Grand Cayman by Sunday afternoon, before heading for western Cuba on Monday and then toward the United States, where it could inflict a third hurricane hit on Florida in a month.
High winds hit the Caymans, a chain of three islands south of Cuba, from late on Saturday, felling trees and power lines. Water from its strong storm surge washed over low-lying areas and there were reports of roofs being ripped away.
Water was waist-high in one spot 1/2 mile (0.8 km) inland on Grand Cayman, the largest of the islands and an important offshore finance center.
"It's pretty rough outside, pretty heavy winds, we figure in excess of 120 mph (192 kph)," said Joan Scott-Campbell of the Cayman's hurricane committee.
Ivan has killed at least 44 people on its march through the Caribbean.
Many of the dead were on the tiny spice island of Grenada, where the Red Cross estimated two thirds of the population of 90,000 were made homeless when Ivan churned into the southeastern Caribbean on Tuesday. There were at least 19 confirmed deaths and the toll was expected to rise.
In Jamaica, aid agencies and officials said they were still trying to find out what had happened in the southeastern parishes of St. Thomas, one of the hardest-hit areas, and St. Elizabeth in the southwest, and hoped to clear blocked roads on Sunday.
CUBA FEARS IVAN'S WORST
Cuba battened down for what could be the most powerful hurricane to hit the island in living memory and tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes.
In the Cayman Islands, coastal dwellers fled to storm shelters to escape battering waves and a 15-foot (five-metre) storm surge.
"We are looking at potentially catastrophic conditions," said James Ryan, chairman of the Caymans hurricane committee.
On Saturday, Ivan's top winds were reported at 165 mph (265 kph). It was the sixth-strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic basin, according to the US National Hurricane Center, and almost rivaled the destructive power of Hurricane Mitch, which killed 10,000 people in Central America in 1998.
Overnight, Ivan was downgraded to Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale but it could strengthen again to a Category 5, the center said.
Forecasters could not say exactly where Ivan would hit in the United States, but it appeared headed for the Florida Panhandle in the northwest of the state.
A Florida landfall would make it the third big hurricane to hit the state in a month, after Charley and Frances, which together caused USD$9.4 billion to USD$11.4 billion in insured damages.
Florida evacuated tourists and 80,000 residents from the 100 mile (160 km) island chain of the Florida Keys.
Ivan was bearing down on Cuba's western tobacco-growing province of Pinar de Rio and authorities evacuated 130,000 people from coastal areas and precarious or tall buildings.
Residents of the capital, Havana, were relieved that the storm appeared to be passing to the west of the city of 2 million, but civil defense officials told residents to stay indoors and secure their homes.
"The danger is very real, even in the capital," President Fidel Castro warned the country of 11 million people in a television broadcast on Saturday night.
In addition to 19 confirmed deaths in Grenada and 16 in Jamaica, four people died in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic and one in Tobago.
(Reuters)
