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Hurricane Dean hits the Carribean
Topic Started: Aug 18 2007, 05:09 PM (674 Views)
John
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Determined
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Quote:
 
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Alarmed tourists jammed Caribbean airports for flights out of Hurricane Dean's path Saturday as the monster storm began sweeping past the Dominican Republic and Haiti and threatened to engulf Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

The Category 4 storm's effects could be felt in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, where an 11-year-old boy was killed by flying debris while watching the waves strike an oceanfront boulevard, the Dominican emergency operations center reported.

But as dark clouds rolled in from the southeast, residents calmly ran errands at stores with fully stocked shelves, despite government advisories about heavy rains and possible flooding.

"Nothing's going to happen here — a lot of water but nothing else," said Pedro Alvajar, 61, as he sat in a doorway selling lottery tickets.

The outer bands of the storm were expected to bring as much as 6 inches of rain to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola.

In Haiti, the government issued radio alerts for people in the mountains and coastal areas. In 2004, Tropical Storm Jeanne brushed the impoverished and heavily deforested country, triggering massive floods that killed 1,900 people and left 900 others missing.

As of 2 p.m. Saturday, Dean was centered about 175 miles south of Santo Domingo and 500 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. It was moving west at 17 mph and had maximum sustained winds near 150 mph.

In Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, which stand directly in Dean's path, fear gripped many islanders and tourists alike. Bracing for a direct hit on Sunday, Jamaica began evacuating people to more than 1,000 shelters nationwide.

Before dawn, tourists began lining up outside the Montego Bay airport in western Jamaica to book flights out. The storm was expected to bring 155 mph winds and as much as 20 inches of rain.

Shante Morgan of Moorpark, Calif., said a lack of information about the severity of the storm was fueling the fear.

"People are freaking out because they're not getting answers at their hotel," said Morgan, 38, who got a Saturday flight after waiting several hours. "They're really playing down the potential influence of the hurricane."

Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller called for a halt to campaigning for the Aug. 27 general elections, saying: "Let us band together and unite in the threat of this hurricane."

Michelle Edwards, of Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, said people in vulnerable communities across the island will be moved to schools and other shelters.

Further west in the low-lying Cayman Islands, lines of tourists waiting for flights snaked out of the international airport terminal and onto the lawn outside. Many tourists flopped under a tree to get out of the sun, surrounded by their luggage.

Cayman Airways added 15 flights to Florida from the wealthy British territory, and they were quickly sold out. The islands were expected to take a direct hit on Monday.

Dean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, gained strength over warm Caribbean waters after claiming six lives and devastating banana and sugar crops when it hit tiny islands in the eastern Caribbean on Friday as a Category 2 storm.

It was expected to clip Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and enter the Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Authorities on Mexico's Caribbean coast began evacuating tourists and residents from low-lying Holbox island north of Cancun on Saturday. A total of 2,200 people, including some 250 Mexican and foreign tourists, were ordered to leave, state officials said.

Forecasters said it was too soon to say whether the hurricane would strike the United States.

Playing it safe, NASA shortened the last spacewalk for astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour and scaled back the mission to allow the spacecraft to return to Earth on Tuesday — a day early — if the storm appeared to threaten the Houston home of Mission Control.

In Cuba, which could get rain from the outer bands of the storm, the government issued a tropical storm warning and said it was evacuating 50,000 people from three provinces.

Dean passed near the islands of St. Lucia and Martinique early Friday as a Category 2 storm with winds near 100 mph.

In St. Lucia, fierce winds tore corrugated metal roofs from dozens of homes and the pediatric ward of a hospital, whose patients had been evacuated hours earlier. Police spokeswoman Tamara Charles said a 62-year-old man drowned when he tried to retrieve a cow from a rain-swollen river.

In Dominica, a woman and her 7-year-old son were killed when a rain-soaked hillside gave way and crushed the home where they were sleeping, said Cecil Shillingford, the national disaster response coordinator. Dominica's government reported at least 150 homes were damaged.

Authorities said two people died on the French island of Martinique, including a woman who apparently fell and drowned.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070818/ap_on_...aSj5k2EBbys0NUE

Well, it's hurricane season once again and it looks like the first major hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic season. For discussion, have you had any natural disaster experiences? If so, feel free to share your stories here.
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.Fable
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relax, we understand j00
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Ah that sucks. I've never had much of an extreme weather encounter, thank goodness.
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Kevin
paradise
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I have never been in any large ordeals concerning natural disasters, except when I had lived in Ohio and a tornado spun right through my backyard - but nothing else since then. I couldn't imagine myself being in anything worse than that, though.
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Zythion
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Sānhéhuì - 三合會i
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I just saw this on the news. It's supposed to be larger than hurricane catrina. +_+ I feel sorry for those in its path.
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Benjamin
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I have some friends in the Dominican Republic, right now. I hope they're okay. :sigh:
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Phazix
there's nothing in the air space
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Please don't curve into Mississippi, please don't...
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light saber
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aprés moi le deluge
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That's awful about the 11 year old boy killed by flying debris. Hope the hurricane doesn't do as much damage as Katrina.
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kseajayne
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i
hate
florida.
zomg.
my roof totally fell off one year =[

aww poor little islands =[
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John
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Determined
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kseajayne
Aug 18 2007, 09:37 PM
i
hate
florida.
zomg.
my roof totally fell off one year =[

aww poor little islands =[

Yeah, I live in Florida too, we get some of the worst weather here. A tree actually fell on the back of my house, I think we owe thanks to Hurricane Jeanne for that x_x
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kseajayne
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Eliseus
Aug 18 2007, 11:01 PM
kseajayne
Aug 18 2007, 09:37 PM
i
hate
florida.
zomg.
my roof totally fell off one year =[

aww poor little islands =[

Yeah, I live in Florida too, we get some of the worst weather here. A tree actually fell on the back of my house, I think we owe thanks to Hurricane Jeanne for that x_x

aww :[ that happened to my neighbor one year. reaaally big tree. hmm i forgot the name of the hurricane that picked the roof up...
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Jam.
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He who dares wins.
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I was in Florida on Holiday a few years ago when Hurricane Frances struck... I think we underestimated it a little bit.
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Nitrous Oxide
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I survived the Ice Storm of '98.
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Excella
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Midnight Caller
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*sigh* Hurricanes.
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Lydia
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Cogito ergo sum
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I live far enough inland though that I won't get the full force of it. I will get some rain if it hits upper Mexico/Texas though. I'm a little worried about my family though.

I've been in a tornado, but that's the most extreme type of weather I've seen.
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Fiona
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true in mind body spirit
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I'm lucky that I live so far away from the normal hurricane paths... It's terrible for the people that live right in its way though.

I know if any hurricane hits as hard as Katrina in the US I'll probably end up going and flying down to help.
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