Hurricane Dean/Bet Jamaica update - merged

Dr. Jack · #1 08-18-2007, 09:04 PM

Downtime for some books

In case anyone is living in a cave and is not aware – expect The Greek, Bet Jamaica, Wagerstreet and Poker World to have some downtime for possibly a few days. Most of the key people are NOT on the island at this time. They have a skeleton crew working as many of them will be safer in the building then where they actually live.

Once they go down – they will do whatever possible to get back up as soon as they can as soon as everyone’s safe. They will also update their sites when possible with messages

Keep these people in your thoughts and prayers – it will be one heck of a storm

SecretStash · #2 08-18-2007, 09:20 PM

when is the expected hit time of this hurricane jack?? any ideas?

Dr. Jack · #3 08-18-2007, 09:23 PM

Tomorrow morning they will start getting hit. It could be a Category 5 tomorrow evening when it's over Jamaica most likely

Dr. Jack · #4 08-18-2007, 09:24 PM

Dean forecast to thrash Jamaica with 160 mph winds

Ken Kaye

Sun-Sentinel.com

August 18, 2007

Already packing devastating power and expected to intensify further, Hurricane Dean began battering the south coasts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday with howling winds and heavy rains as it churned northwest through the Caribbean.

Haitian authorities issued an alert for coastal communities where thousands of people live in flimsy shacks. All flights from the capital, Port-au-Prince, were canceled on Saturday and small boats were prohibited from leaving shore, the country's disaster management agency said.

Elsewhere, alarmed tourists jammed Caribbean airports for flights out of Hurricane Dean's path. In Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, an 11-year-old boy was killed by flying debris while watching large waves strike an oceanfront boulevard, the Dominican emergency operations center reported.

Dean was forecast to thrash Jamaica with 160 mph winds, or Category 5 intensity, up to 20 inches of rain, storm surge and large battering waves, with the onslaught beginning Sunday morning. The system, with hurricane-force winds extending 70 miles from its core, was to be directly over the small island nation by Sunday afternoon.

Also facing peril: the Cayman Islands, which are about 200 miles northwest of Jamaica and in Dean's path. The storm was expected to rumble over those resort islands on Monday while retaining its brute force.

At 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dean was about 455 miles east of Kingston, Jamaica, moving northwest at 18 mph with sustained winds of 150 mph, making it a Category 4. It was expected to produce up to 3 inches of rain over the Dominican Republic and 6 inches over Haiti, with the possibility of flash foods and mudslides.

Haitian officials are fully aware of storm dangers. In 2004, Tropical Storm Jeanne brushed the impoverished and heavily deforested country, triggering massive floods that killed 1,900 people and left 900 others missing. Jeanne later grew into a major hurricane and hit Florida's Treasure Coast.

The Cuban government also braced for Dean, as the storm was projected to pass close enough to that island to cause potential flooding and wind damage. A state of alert was declared in six provinces on Saturday, and 50,000 people were to be evacuated from three of those. Soldiers and emergency officials were prepared to convert schools and other government buildings into temporary shelters if necessary, state radio reported.

Dean earlier killed three people, as it moved passed the tiny islands of St. Lucia and Martinique in the central Lesser Antilles on Friday as a Category 2 hurricane. It also caused severe damage to banana and sugar crops.

While the system had been moving briskly forward over the past few days, it has slowed its progress, allowing it to fortify further and dole out even greater punishment as it passes over land areas, forecasters said.

"It's just moving over very warm, deep water with very little wind shear - and without wind shear, these things grow strong very quickly," hurricane specialist Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County said.

At the same time that it is bulking up, it also is expanding in size, Blake added. "As these hurricanes age, they tend to grow," he said.

With waters now reaching temperatures of about 88 degrees, the Caribbean has shown that it can nurture storms to astonishing power. Hurricane Wilma spooled up to 185 mph in the open waters of the Caribbean, becoming the most intense hurricane on record, before it hit the Yucatan and South Florida in October 2005.

Before that, Hurricane Ivan reached 165 mph in September 2004, before Alabama and Florida.

To give some idea of the destructive power of a Category 5 hurricane, consider that Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 system and left about $81 billion in damage, by far the costliest storm in U.S. history. Katrina also killed more than 1,800 people, with most of those being in New Orleans after the system busted the levee system and much of the city was put under water.

While Dean's center was to pass about 500 miles south of Florida at its closest point, the system's far-reaching peripheral bands were to bring strong breezes, up to 20 mph and fast moving rain showers to this region tonight and Monday, the National Weather Service in Miami said.

"There also will be an increased threat of rip currents along the Atlantic coast," said weather service meteorologist Dan Dixon. "Minor beach erosion will be possible at about the time of high tides."

Dean was projected to hit the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday morning, emerge in the southern Gulf of Mexico and aim for northern Mexico, near San Fernando.

Because the system also could threaten Texas, NASA shortened the last spacewalk for astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour and was prepared to return to the spacecraft to Earth on Tuesday, a day early, if the storm approached Houston, home of Mission Control.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it would evacuate 275 nonessential personnel from the Gulf, adding to the 188 who left earlier this week before another tropical storm struck Texas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Ken Kaye can be reached at kkaye@sun-sentinel.com.

Chicago RED · #5 08-18-2007, 10:45 PM

Not good.

Dr. Jack · #6 08-19-2007, 09:01 AM

FYI – The power will go down in less than an hour. They do have backup generators but they are not expected to last long

At 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) Sunday, officials plan to cut the island's electricity as a precaution, according to Jamaica Public Service Company -- the sole distributor of electricity in Jamaica. In addition, the National Water Commission said it has already turned off some water pumps, especially in places prone to flooding.

Storm forecasters described as Dean as "extremely dangerous" with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph. It is forecast to reach Category 5 intensity with winds in excess of 155 mph before bearing down on Jamaica.

dave nz · #7 08-19-2007, 09:45 AM

Thanks for the info Jack. Know some people over there concerning times.

underdog51 · #8 08-19-2007, 10:47 AM

JAck I'm actually a meteorologist at day, center of storm may stay just south of the island so although its going to be a very dangerous situation there, it is possible that the very bad cat 4 winds will stay just south, but there is still likely to be devastating damage there none the less. My outfit actually does several virgin island radio stations.

Dr. Jack · #9 08-19-2007, 10:50 AM

Wow - did not know that. Hope you are better than the meterologist here? lol

I think we have a few famous ones!

Unfortunately I think no matter how it hits it will do some major damage. Hopefully you are right. Thanks for info