MIAMI, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - Hurricane Dean intensified late Friday, packing fearsome winds of up to 215 kilometers (135 miles) per hour, as it blasted across the Caribbean toward Jamaica, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The storm center was 1,290 kilometers (800 miles) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 410 kilometers (250 miles) south of Puerto Rico, the Miami-based monitor (NHC) said in a bulletin at 0000 GMT.
The NHC upgraded Dean to a category four hurricane, just below the maximum category five in the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It is capable of significant damage and can require the massive evacuation of areas as far inland as 10 kilometers (six miles).
"The bottom line is that Dean is expected to be a dangerous hurricane through the next several days," said the NHC.
Dean earlier left flooding and devastation in parts of the Caribbean, including the island of Martinique.
The massive storm plowed through the eastern Caribbean on a direct course for Jamaica and the tourist-heavy tip of the Yucatan peninsula after battering the Lesser Antilles before dawn Friday with heavy rains and winds gusting over 170 kilometers (105 miles) per hour, according to reports from Martinique.
In Martinique, it caused widspread flooding early Friday in the southern part of the island, with the town of Riviere-Pilote completely under water.
"This is real devastation," a local official said by telephone. Violent winds tore the roofs off the the local fire and police stations and numerous other buildings, the official said.
One third of Martinique's population, some 115,000 people, have been left without electricity by the storm, said the administrator of this French territory, Laurent Bigot.
"We will carry out an aerial reconaissance (of the stricken area) as soon as possible," he added.
In Paris, the State Secretariat for Overseas Affairs reported that nearly 100 percent of the banana crop and 70 percent of sugar cane crop in Martinique have been lost to the storm.
The storm is expected to cross Jamaica Sunday.
The prime minister of Jamaica was holding an emergency meeting of the disaster preparedness committee Friday to prepare for the hurricane, which could disrupt general elections scheduled for August 27.
In Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, authorities issued a "preventive alert," advising the local population to prepare for the worse.
Mexico's National Weather Service said the hurricane could make landfall on the peninsula Monday or Tuesday.
In Qintana Roo state, authorities have set up 500 emergency shelters. "Sixty thousand tourists are staying in the area, and we can ensure their safety at all times," Gabriela Rodriguez, the state official in charge of tourism, told AFP.
Haiti, which shares the Island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, was put under an "orange alert," since some predictions put Dean close to the country's southern peninsula by Saturday afternoon, authorities there said.
More than 1,000 rescue operators have been mobilized and emergency shelters have been set up in case the devastating storm strikes, said Civil Defense spokesman Dieufort Delorges.
Rains reaching 13 centimeters (five inches) were predicted for Haiti and the Dominican Republic and the US hurricane center warned they could cause "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides."
bur/fgf/rlp AFP 180159 GMT 08 07
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Received by NewsEdge Insight: 08/17/2007 22:00:35
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