Dean could bring as much as 50cm of rain on Jamaica and warned waves could surge 2-3m above normal tide levels, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

 

Hurricane Dean, the first powerful storm of the Atlantic season, landed on southern coast of Jamaica on Sunday and hit its capital Kingston after it pounded Caribbean islands and coastal areas on Saturday.

 

Packing winds of to 230km/h, the Category 4 storm cut the power and blocked roads by fallen trees and floods in the eastern parts of the island.

 

Dean could bring as much as 50cm of rain on Jamaica and warned waves could surge 2-3m above normal tide levels, the US National Hurricane Centre said.  

 

The Jamaican government has been trying to convince people refusing to leave their homes to evacuate the most vulnerable areas along the southern coast and go the shelters opened up by the government.

 

"Preparations to protect life and property in Jamaica should already have been completed. Preparations in the Cayman Islands should be rushed to completion," the centre's latest hurricane report said.

 

The center forcasted that Dean could become a Category 5 storm, the highest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, in two days with winds of more than 250kph near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

 

At least eight deaths in southern US state of Texas were blamed on tropical storm Erin on Thursday, and six deaths were confirmed when Dean run through Caribbean on Saturday.

 

(Xinhua News Agency via agencies August 20, 2007)