Ivan’s Caribbean rampage continues

HURRICANE Ivan lashed the tiny Cayman Islands with ferocious winds and driving rain yesterday after devastating Jamaica and Grenada in a deadly trek through the Caribbean.

As its centre 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, but it was still a very dangerous hurricane.

Ivan killed at least 16 people in Jamaica, its torrential rains triggering mudslides 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, before heading for western Cuba today and then toward the US, 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 a half mile inland on Grand Cayman, the largest of the islands and an important offshore finance centre.

“It’s pretty rough outside, pretty heavy winds, we figure in excess of 120 mph,” 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.

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.

Residents of the capital, Havana, were relieved that the storm appeared to be passing to the west of the city of two million, but civil defence officials told residents to stay indoors and secure their homes.

In the Cayman Islands, coastal dwellers fled to storm shelters to escape battering waves and a 15-foot storm surge.

On Saturday, Ivan’s top winds were reported at 165 mph. It was the sixth-strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic basin, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.