500,000 flee homes as Ivan the terrible lashes Jamaica

HURRICANE Ivan’s deadly winds and monstrous waves lashed Jamaica last night as more than half a million people were advised to evacuate.

The most destructive of the four hurricanes in this hurricane season was due to slam into the densely populated capital of Kingston then leave the Caribbean island via the tourism centre of Montego Bay.

It has already left Grenada a wasteland of flattened houses, twisted metal and splintered wood, with the death toll hitting more than 30, including two foreign yachtsman.

The Jamaican government ordered the evacuation of half a million people from coastal areas, where rains on Ivan's outer edges were already flooding roads. Many, however, refused to leave, fearing their homes would be robbed if abandoned.

The Category 4 hurricane five is the top of the scale recorded winds of 145mph and could strengthen before its core nears Jamaica early today, meteorologists said.

In the US, officials ordered people to evacuate from the Florida Keys after forecasters said the storm could hit the island chain by Monday after passing the Cayman Islands and crossing Cuba. It was the third evacuation in Florida in a month, following Hurricanes Charley and Frances.

Yesterday morning, in Jamaica's Montego Bay, stranded tourists crowded the airport and armed private guards began patrolling against looters. Driving rains flooded roads with up to a foot of water.

In Haiti and Cuba yesterday emergency measures were being put in place for Ivan's arrival.

Ivan also killed one person in Tobago, five in Venezuela, a Canadian woman in Barbados, and four youngsters in the Dominican Republic who were swept away by a giant wave even though the storm was nearly 200 miles away.