Hurricane Emily threatens Jamaica, Caymans and Mexico

Hurricane Emily regained dangerous Category 4 strength today, frightening storm-weary islanders in Jamaica and Cayman Islands after ravaging Grenada.

Many rushed to buy emergency supplies as officials urged them to evacuate coastal and flood-prone areas.

Meanwhile, Mexican authorities recommended evacuating tourists from much of the country’s Caribbean coast, including the resort of Cancun if Hurricane Emily continued heading towards the Yucatan peninsula.

Roberto Vargas, civil defence director of Cancun, said evacuations might start today and tourists were already being advised to leave.

“We are inviting people to return to their homes,” Vargas said.

Hotels in Cancun began handing out letters to guests, warning them about the on-coming storm.

While no evacuation has yet been ordered, the Cancun city government is already meeting bus companies to arrange transport for tourists away from the low-lying spit of land that houses much of Cancun’s hotel sector.

The Interior Department recommended evacuating the Caribbean coast from Tulum to an area north of Cancun and urged people to take refuge at least half a mile inland.

The department also suggested evacuating popular tourist islands such as Cozumel and Isla Mujeres.

Grenada declared a national disaster yesterday, the day after Emily’s 90mph winds tore down at least 100 homes, blasted windows, sheared off roofs and flooded two hospitals and scores of other buildings.

At least one person was killed, when his home was buried under a landslide.

Emily’s winds strengthened to 135mph with higher gusts yesterday morning, making it “a very rare Category 4 hurricane in the Caribbean Sea in the month of July”, said Stacy Stewart, a meteorologist with the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

Then it weakened to 105mph, raising hopes, before it regained strength.

The second major hurricane of the Atlantic season came unusually early and made its presence felt from hundreds of miles away, unleashing heavy surf, gusty winds and torrential rains on both sides of the Caribbean sea.

Heavy rains drenched the southeast Dominican Republic and officials warned boatmen to stay in port, saying that coastline could expect strong electrical storms, whipping winds and waves higher than 10 feet as the hurricane passed last night, an expected 200 miles and more to the south.

Emily’s next direct hit, according to the hurricane centre’s projections, will be Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula tomorrow night.

If it continues on the same path, it will make landfall again on Wednesday between Tuxpan, Mexico, and Galveston, Texas, about a 600-mile span in the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane centre spokesman Frank Lepore said, warning that “a lot could change”.

Jamaicans formed long lines at grocery stores to stock up on water, canned food and batteries, only a week after doing the same for Hurricane Dennis, which washed away several homes, damaged crops and flooded roads.

Prime minister PJ Patterson ordered government offices to close and instructed disaster authorities to draw up plans to evacuate thousands.

Last night Emily was centred about 265 miles south east of Kingston, Jamaica, moving west-northwest near 18mph on a track for the eye to pass close to southern Jamaica today.

Hurricane-force winds extended 45 miles and tropical storm-force winds another 140 miles.

It could drop up to 15 inches of rain on mountainous terrain, the centre said.

Emily’s eye was projected to come within 79 miles of Grand Cayman Island tomorrow. The Cayman Islands government warned residents and raised its hurricane watch to a warning.

Emily trails Hurricane Dennis, which destroyed crops and killed 25 people in Haiti and 16 in Cuba last week.

Last year, three catastrophic hurricanes – Frances, Ivan and Jeanne – tore through the Caribbean with a collective ferocity not seen in years, causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in damage.