Hurricane Wilma on Caribbean rampage

Wilma, the record-equalling 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season, is poised to become a major category four storm as it steams along a track that will take it past Central America, Cancun, Cuba and eventually into Florida.

“It would not be a surprise to see it reach category five before it bottoms out,” the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida said today.

However, Wilma could weaken again due to internal factors and sea temperatures before hitting Florida’s Gulf coast as expected later in the week.

High seas, rain and winds from Wilma, currently a Category 2 hurricane with 110mph winds, forced Honduras to close two seaports on its Caribbean coast. A small fishing boat capsized in a coastal lagoon, but Honduran authorities rescued its occupants.

With heavy rain already falling in coastal areas, flood-prone Honduras warned that Wilma posed “an imminent threat to life and property”. Neighbouring Nicaragua also declared an alert. Central America is just recovering from Hurricane Stan, which killed at least 796 people, most in Guatemala.

Cuba issued a hurricane watch for the western end of the island from Matanzas to Pinar del Rio, as well as the Isle of Youth. Mexico issued a hurricane watch for nearly all of its Caribbean coast from Punta Gruesa to Cabo Catoche, an area that includes the resort of Cancun.

Wilma had already been blamed for one death in Jamaica as a tropical depression on Sunday and it pounded the island for a third day yesterday, flooding several low-lying communities and triggering mudslides that blocked roads and damaged several homes, said Barbara Carby, head of Jamaica’s emergency management office. She said 250 people were in shelters throughout the island.

Wilma was centred about 180 miles south west of Grand Cayman Island, and about 140 miles north east of Cape Gracias a Dios on the Honduras-Nicaragua border.

The hurricane centre reported that “central pressure is falling rapidly”, with Wilma expected to become a category four hurricane with winds of as much as 137mph by today or tomorrow.

Early projections show the storm is likely to rake Honduras and the Cayman Islands before it turns toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between western Cuba and the Cancun region of Mexico. It is then aimed at Florida.

“It does look like it poses a significant threat to Florida by the weekend. Of course, these are four and five-day forecasts, so things can change,” said Dan Brown, a meteorologist at the hurricane centre.

In the Cayman Islands, authorities urged businesses to close early yesterday to give employees time to prepare for the storm. Schools were ordered to close today.

In Mexico, the MTV Latin America Video Music Awards ceremony, originally scheduled to be held tomorrow at a seaside park south of Cancun, was moved forward one day to avoid possible effects from Wilma.

Honduras and its neighbours are already recovering from flooding and mudslides caused by earlier storms. Officials say Hurricane Stan killed at least 796 people, most of them in Guatemala.

But forecasters said Wilma should avoid the central US Gulf coast devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita earlier this year.

The six-month hurricane season does not end until November 30, but Wilma exhausts the list of storm names for 2005. Any new storms would be named with letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.

Since record-keeping began in 1851, only once before – in 1969 – did 12 hurricanes form. Wilma also ties the record as the season’s 21st named storm.