Hurricane Dean Pummels Jamaica

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DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Debbie Elliott.

Hurricane Dean is lashing the southern coast of Jamaica. The strong Category 4 hurricane is packing winds of 145 miles an hour. We haven't been able to make contact with anyone in Jamaica in the last hour, but earlier this afternoon we reached the BBC's Karen Madden in Old Harbour, Jamaica.

Ms. KAREN MADDEN (Correspondent, BBC): Several of the communities that we went through over the last two hours and their houses are completely battened down. Forces have really taken the threat of this hurricane very, very seriously, not wanting to make the mistake as we did in 1988 when we were hit unprepared by Hurricane Gilbert.

ELLIOTT: More than 40 were killed when Hurricane Gilbert hit Jamaica back in '88.

Ms. MADDEN: Exactly. So that's our reference point that people of - are looking at and people are, I'm happy to say, have learned from that experience.

ELLIOTT: We turn now to Dennis Feltgen. He's a meteorologist and public affairs officer at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Welcome.

Mr. DENNIS FELTGEN (Meteorologist, National Hurricane Center, Miami, Florida): Good evening.

ELLIOTT: What can you tell us about Hurricane Dean and the latest information there at the hurricane center? How is it affecting Jamaica?

Mr. FELTGEN: Jamaica is getting the full brunt of the hurricane right now. After 5:00, the center of the storm was about 50 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica. It's moving west at about 20 miles per hour and that motion will continue, which means it's going to continue to scrape along just south of the southern coast of Jamaica or right along the coast for the next several hours.

Maximum sustained winds are near (technical difficulties) gusts, so Dean remains a Category 4 hurricane and unfortunately, it has the potential to become a Category 5 hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean Sea tomorrow.

ELLIOTT: Now you said it was maximum sustained winds of 145 miles an hour but you expect it to get stronger as it moves through the Caribbean. Where do you think Hurricane Dean is tracking? Today we heard FEMA talk about a whole slew of preparations in anticipation of a possible landfall in Texas. Is the coast there in danger?

Mr. FELTGEN: The coast there, they should always be watching this. The extreme southern coast of Texas is in that cone of uncertainty we talk about on the track. But if the computer models are handling Hurricane Dean correctly, it looks like it'll be a landfall far to the south of the Texas coast sometime during the day on Thursday. It's possibly a Category 2 or Category 3 hurricane.

However, that does not mean there wouldn't be any impact from the southeast coast. There, of course, will be some gusty winds and some very high surf along with some squalling rainfall. So it needs to be watched very closely in the state of Texas and especially in northeast Mexico.

ELLIOTT: Thank you so much.

Mr. FELTGEN: All right.

ELLIOTT: Dennis Feltgen is with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Severe weather is not only a story in the tropics. As much as a foot of rain flooded parts of the Midwest overnight including Minnesota and Wisconsin. Bridges and roads were washed away and at least four people died. In Oklahoma, helicopter rescue crews spent the day pulling people from floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin. And parts of Texas are still cleaning up from that storm system.

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